Housing starts surged 5.3% m/m in November. The gain to 2.123M units reversed most of the prior month's decline and beat Consensus expectations for a decline to 2.015M starts.

A 4.8% gain in single-family starts returned the level to its record height of 1.808M achieved this past February. The gain was most pronounced in the West where starts rose 14.4% (25.8% y/y) and in the Midwest where starts rose 7.5% (22.5% y/y). In the South single family starts rose just 0.8% (22.1% y/y) but in the Northeast single family starts fell for the fourth month in the last five (+5.8% y/y).

Multi family starts recovered about one third of the prior month's skid with a 7.9% m/m gain and building permits recovered about half of the prior month's 5.2% drop as single family permits inched up just 0.2% (7.7% y/y).