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.