On: US home construction surges 22.6%, third monthly increase

[jointpdf]

So this article doesn’t cite the original source, but I think it’s this (HUD and the Census Bureau are part of Commerce): https://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/pdf/newresconst.pdf

This puts everything in much better context, especially the time series plot. It seems home starts / permits were already increasing from July 2019 - Dec 2019, matching the July 2020 levels. So the better question might be: why that surge?