Dive summary:

• The July report on housing starts had single family stumbling some with a 2.2% decline from a revised annual pace in June, but multifamily upheld the sector's honor with a 26% climb from June to post an annual pace of 305,000.
• Altogether, housing rose 5.9% from June to July to an annualized construction rate of 896,000 units.
• Breaking out the national numbers by region, housing was up 40.2% in the Northeast, 25.4% in the Midwest and 7.2% in the West, but the pace fell 7% in the South.

From the article:

Issuance of building permits, which can be an indicator of future building activity, rose 2.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 943,000 units in July ...