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U.S. Housing Starts Rise Again in December
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Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller June 19, 2018
Total housing starts rose 5.0% (20.3% y/y) during May to 1.350 million units (SAAR) from 1.286 million in April, revised from 1.287 million. It was the highest level of starts since July 2007. A level of 1.305 million starts had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.
Starts of single-family homes improved 3.9% last month (18.3% y/y) to 936,000, following a 2.2% April rise to 901,000. Starts of multi-family units rebounded 7.5% to 414,000 units after a 13.5% decline to 385,000 units.
The rise in starts last month was dominated by the Midwest where housing starts surged by roughly two-thirds both m/m and y/y to 266,000. That followed a 9.9% April decline. Elsewhere around the country housing starts fell. Housing starts in the Northeast were off 15.0% (+20.0% y/y) to 102,000, the lowest level since December. Starts in the West fell 4.1% (+4.8% y/y) to 329,000, the lowest level since September. Starts in the South eased 0.9% (+16.8% y/y) to 653,000 after a 4.6% gain.
Building permits declined 4.6% (+8.0% y/y) to 1.301 million units following a 0.9% April fall. Single-family permits were off 2.2% (+7.7% y/y) to 844,000 after a 1.4% rise. Permits to build multi-family homes fell 8.8% (+8.6% y/y) to 457,000, after declining 4.8%.
The housing starts and permits figures can be found in Haver's USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in the AS1REPNA database.
Housing Starts (000s, SAAR) | May | Apr | Mar | May Y/Y % | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 1,350 | 1,286 | 1,327 | 20.3 | 1,203 | 1,174 | 1,112 |
Single-Family | 936 | 901 | 882 | 18.3 | 859 | 782 | 715 |
Multi-Family | 414 | 385 | 445 | 25.1 | 354 | 392 | 397 |
Starts By Region | |||||||
Northeast | 102 | 120 | 120 | 20.0 | 111 | 116 | 138 |
Midwest | 266 | 164 | 182 | 62.2 | 180 | 182 | 153 |
South | 653 | 659 | 630 | 16.8 | 599 | 585 | 556 |
West | 329 | 343 | 395 | 4.8 | 313 | 291 | 265 |
Building Permits | 1,301 | 1,364 | 1,377 | 8.0 | 1,282 | 1,207 | 1,183 |