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Economy in Brief
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U.S. Industrial Production Rebounded in March
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U.S. Home Builder Index Edges Higher in April
The NAHB-Wells Fargo Composite Housing Market Index rose 1.2% to 83 during April...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller December 16, 2015
Housing starts during November recovered 10.5% to 1.173 million (SAAR) from 1.062 million in October, last month reported as 1.060 million. Starts were 18.5% higher than one year earlier. The latest figure surpassed expectations for 1.133 million starts in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.
Single-family starts increased 7.6% (14.6% y/y) to 768,000, the highest level since June. A 15.1% rise (-7.3% y/y) in the West paced the gain followed by the South where single-family starts rose 8.8% (13.3% y/y). In the Northeast, single-family starts increased 1.7% (9.1% y/y) but they declined 4.4% in the Midwest (-0.9% y/y).
Starts of multi-family homes jumped 16.4% last month (20.2% y/y) to 405,000 and recovered roughly half of the prior month's decline. Multi-family starts in the South rebounded 57.3% m/m and more than doubled y/y. In the Midwest, multi-family starts increased 8.2% (4.8% y/y) but in the West they fell 13.7%, off by more than one-half y/y. In the Northeast, starts of multi-family home declined 15.7% (+34.6% y/y).
Building permits in November increased 11.0% (19.5% y/y) to 1.289 million following a 5.1% gain. A 26.9% rise (36.1% y/y) in multi-family permits led the advance. Single-family building permits edged 1.1% higher (9.0% y/y).
The housing starts figures can be found in Haver's USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in the AS1REPNA database.
Housing Starts (000s, SAAR) | Nov | Oct | Sep | Nov Y/Y % | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 1,173 | 1,062 | 1,207 | 16.5 | 1,001 | 928 | 784 |
Single-Family | 768 | 714 | 741 | 14.6 | 647 | 620 | 537 |
Multi-Family | 405 | 348 | 466 | 20.2 | 354 | 308 | 247 |
Starts By Region | |||||||
Northeast | 130 | 142 | 130 | 21.5 | 110 | 97 | 80 |
Midwest | 174 | 174 | 137 | 1.2 | 159 | 149 | 129 |
South | 615 | 507 | 638 | 35.5 | 497 | 467 | 400 |
West | 254 | 239 | 302 | -7.3 | 236 | 217 | 175 |
Building Permits | 1,289 | 1,161 | 1,105 | 19.5 | 1,052 | 987 | 829 |