Housing Starts (USD)

Number of new residential construction projects that have begun in a given period, a key indicator of economic activity and construction sector health.

Latest reading: 1148.0 (2016-05-31)  ·  Thousands (SAAR)

Category: Economy

API Endpoint

/api/v1/announcements/usd/housing_starts

About Housing Starts (USD)

Housing starts for United States measures the number of new residential construction projects that began during the reporting period. It is a leading indicator for construction activity and broader economic momentum.

Why FX traders watch it

Housing construction has significant multiplier effects—builders hire workers, purchase materials, and drive demand for furniture and appliances. Housing starts are sensitive to mortgage rates and therefore to Federal Reserve policy.

How to interpret the data

A strong housing starts reading above consensus signals confidence in the economy and is broadly usd-positive. A collapse in starts often precedes recessions, as it indicates tight credit conditions and weak consumer confidence.

Historical Housing Starts (USD)

Source: FRED (BEA/BLS/Fed)  ·  Monthly  ·  Thousands (SAAR)

Data provided by FXMacroData via the /api/v1/announcements/usd/housing_starts endpoint. For access, see pricing.

Data Source

Primary Source

FRED (BEA/BLS/Fed)

Official Series ID

HOUST

Data Format and Properties

Data Frequency

Monthly

Unit of Measure

Thousands (SAAR)

JSON Response Structure

The endpoint returns a chronological list of observations in JSON format.

{
    "currency": "USD",
    "indicator": "housing_starts",
    "has_official_forecast": false,
    "start_date": "2023-01-01",
    "end_date": "2023-12-31",
    "data": [
        {
            "date": "2024-07-01",
            "val": 4.2,
            "announcement_datetime": 1722456000
        }
    ]
}

Request Parameters & Usage

Parameter Required Format Description
start_date NO YYYY-MM-DD Optional lower bound for the requested history.
end_date NO YYYY-MM-DD Optional upper bound. Defaults to the current date.
api_key CONDITIONAL string Required for non-USD announcement requests. USD announcement requests are public without an API key.

Example Usage

To retrieve Housing Starts data for USD from 2023:

GET https://fxmacrodata.com/api/v1/announcements/usd/housing_starts?start_date=2023-01-01&end_date=2023-12-31