U.S. Housing Starts & Building Permits Weaken in December
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
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Multi-family starts fall sharply but single-family increases.
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Decline is pronounced in most of the country.
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Building permits overall weaken.
Total housing starts fell 1.4% (-21.8% y/y) during December to 1.382 million units (SAAR) from 1.401 million in November, revised from 1.427 million. Starts in December were 23.4% lower last month than their April 2022 peak. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 1.36 million starts in December.
The decline in starts last month occurred as multi-family starts fell 19.0% (-14.9% y/y) to 473,000 after rising 3.0% in November. Single-family starts improved 11.3% (-25.0% y/y) last month to 909,000, after falling in each of the prior three months.
Housing starts remained regionally mixed. Starts in the Midwest fell 37.4% (-61.5% y/y) to 129,000, after falling 10.8% in November. Starts in the West weakened 9.5% last month (-17.1% y/y) to 324,000, following a 13.3% November rise. Starts in the South declined 4.0% (-20.4% y/y), after falling 4.8% in November. In the Northeast, starts surged 135.6% (50.4% y/y) to 212,000, following three months of sharp decline.
Building permits weakened 1.6% (-29.9% y/y during December to 1.330 million units after falling 10.6% in November. Single-family permits declined 6.5% (-34.7% y/y) to 730,000 after falling for nine consecutive months. Multi-family permits rose 5.3% (-22.9% y/y) to 600,000 after falling 15.1% in November.
The housing starts and permits figures can be found in Haver's USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in the AS1REPNA database.
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
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