New privately-owned housing units started in the West Census Region (thousands of units, seasonally adjusted annual rate; FRED HOUSTW, U.S. Census Bureau and HUD, New Residential Construction release, monthly 1959-01 onward). Carries 1-month and 12-month changes, the 3-month annualized percent change, and a contraction_flag marking months with fewer starts than a year earlier. Census revises history with each vintage (kept as published).

Source: US Regional Housing Intelligence (FRED, keyless)
Rows: 812
Columns: 14
Source cadence: Monthly
Last refreshed: Oct 2, 2026
Theme: housing

Column	Type	Description
month_start	date	First day of the calendar month. (unit: date)
year_month	string	Calendar month as YYYY-MM (panel join key). (unit: string)
region	string	Census region (West: Mountain (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, WY) plus Pacific (AK, CA, HI, OR, WA)). (unit: string)
region_code	string	Short Census region code (panel join key). (unit: string)
country	string	Country name (shared normalization layer). (unit: string)
country_code	string	ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code (USA). (unit: string)
starts_thousands	float	New privately-owned housing starts in the West Census Region (thousands of units, SAAR; U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, New Residential Construction (Table 3)). (unit: thousands of units, SAAR)
starts_mom_thousands	float	1-month change in housing starts (null for the first panel month). (unit: thousands of units)
starts_mom_pct	float	1-month percent change in housing starts (null for the first panel month). (unit: percent)
starts_yoy_thousands	float	12-month change in housing starts (null for the first panel year). (unit: thousands of units)
starts_yoy_pct	float	12-month percent change in housing starts (null for the first panel year). (unit: percent)
starts_3m_ann_pct	float	3-month annualized percent change in housing starts (null for the first 3 panel months). (unit: percent)
contraction_flag	integer	1 when 12-month housing starts growth is negative (fewer units than a year earlier), else 0. (unit: flag)
row_hash	string	Deterministic 16-hex sha256 of year_month + region_code + the level (idempotency key). (unit: string)

First 10 sample rows — a preview, not the complete dataset.

month_start	year_month	region	region_code	country	country_code	starts_thousands	starts_mom_thousands	starts_mom_pct	starts_yoy_thousands	starts_yoy_pct	starts_3m_ann_pct	row_hash
1959-01-01	1959-01	West	W	United States	USA	350	—	—	—	—	—	42394f70cfda9690
1959-02-01	1959-02	West	W	United States	USA	344	-6	-1.714	—	—	—	8aeed823b875dfae
1959-03-01	1959-03	West	W	United States	USA	374	30	8.721	—	—	—	4d36ff6e5e45c3e7
1959-04-01	1959-04	West	W	United States	USA	388	14	3.743	—	—	51.027	6aa6e001314a6cce
1959-05-01	1959-05	West	W	United States	USA	396	8	2.062	—	—	75.609	7fd597157f54f11c
1959-06-01	1959-06	West	W	United States	USA	388	-8	-2.02	—	—	15.835	0f856d63f155bcdd
1959-07-01	1959-07	West	W	United States	USA	372	-16	-4.124	—	—	-15.502	74e45627d41e82e1
1959-08-01	1959-08	West	W	United States	USA	376	4	1.075	—	—	-18.722	4470e3e81635b4a0
1959-09-01	1959-09	West	W	United States	USA	376	0	0	—	—	-11.809	64a5aaab82764ffb
1959-10-01	1959-10	West	W	United States	USA	353	-23	-6.117	—	—	-18.918	ab4a9b8195b11871

Oct 2, 2026Current
20261002T045136Z-bbaa4ca3904e · sha256 bbaa4ca3904e…
812 rows · first snapshot

Point any LLM at the metadata endpoint — the documentation above is machine-readable too (JSON-LD + Croissant).

cURL

curl "https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/fred_housing_pack/us_housing_starts_west_monthly" | jq '{title, rows, columns_count, license}'

Python

import requests

ds = requests.get("https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/fred_housing_pack/us_housing_starts_west_monthly").json()
print(ds["title"], ds["rows"], "rows")

# Sample rows for an LLM context window
for row in ds.get("sample_rows", [])[:5]:
    print(row)

API endpoint: https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/fred_housing_pack/us_housing_starts_west_monthly

Tip: fetch /llms.txt for the full machine-readable catalog.

Where this data comes from and what was made from it. Other people's work shows as counts; only shared projects are named.

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Pinned to snapshot 20261002T045136Z-bbaa4ca3904e and its content hash, so readers get exactly the data you used.

APA

US Regional Housing Intelligence (FRED, keyless). (2026). US West housing starts, monthly [Data set, snapshot 20261002T045136Z-bbaa4ca3904e, sha256 bbaa4ca3904e]. Datazimuts. Retrieved 2026-10-02, from https://datazimuts.com/en/datasets/fred_housing_pack/us_housing_starts_west_monthly?snapshot=20261002T045136Z-bbaa4ca3904e

BibTeX

@misc{dz_fred_housing_pack_us_housing_starts_west_bbaa4ca3,
  title        = {{US West housing starts, monthly}},
  author       = {{US Regional Housing Intelligence (FRED, keyless)}},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Datazimuts},
  howpublished = {\url{https://datazimuts.com/en/datasets/fred_housing_pack/us_housing_starts_west_monthly?snapshot=20261002T045136Z-bbaa4ca3904e}},
  note         = {Snapshot 20261002T045136Z-bbaa4ca3904e, sha256 bbaa4ca3904e68e8bfb77576402f4675c890ca5717c7b64d8b7a45ee09edb06d; accessed 2026-10-02}
}

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<iframe src="https://datazimuts.com/embed/chart?dataset=fred_housing_pack%2Fus_housing_starts_west_monthly&lang=en&theme=auto&snapshot=20261002T045136Z-bbaa4ca3904e&x=year_month&y=starts_thousands&agg=avg" title="US West housing starts, monthly" width="100%" height="380" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>

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US West housing starts, monthly

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