·
November housing starts fell 3.7% from October to 1.187M units.
Starts in October were revised up slightly due to more starts of
multi-family units. Last month's figure matched Consensus
expectations for 1.18M starts.
· Single-family starts fell last month by another 5.4% m/m to 829,000 units (AR), the lowest level since 1991 and down 55% from the peak during January 2006.
· Multi-family starts were roughly unchanged after the 45.9% m/m spike in October.
· By region, single family starts in
the Northeast retraced nearly all of the recovery during October with a
20.0% (-29.2% y/y) decline. Single family starts in the Midwest also
were quite weak and fell 20.8% (-28.6% y/y). Single family starts in the
West fell a more moderate 6.8% m/m yet remained down 63.9% from the 2005
peak. In the South starts reversed a third of the October decline with a
5.4% m/m increase (-36.1% y/y).
· Building permits fell 1.5% (-24.6% y/y) and were off by nearly one half from the 2005 peak. Single-family permits fell as well by 5.6% (-33.7% y/y) and were off an even greater 57.5% from the peak.
· Housing Woes Weigh Heavily on the Economy from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis can be found here.