Both single family -6.7% (-10.5% y/y) and multifamily -20.4% (-11.8% y/y) were hit hard in December. Starts fell in every region of the country except the Northeast where they were unchanged (+21.6% y/y). In the West, starts plummeted 26.3% (-39.7% y/y); in the Midwest they dropped 13.2% (-26.5% y/y); while in the South they were down 6.0% (+6.1% y/y). In the Midwest and West housing starts were at their lowest level since early 2015.

Building permits edged up 0.3% (0.5% y/y) to 1.326 million in December after a slightly-downwardly revised 4.5% gain in November. A 2.2% decline in single-family permits (-5.5% y/y) was offset by the 4.9% rise in multi-family (12.2% y/y).

The housing starts and permits figures can be found in Haver's USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in the AS1REPNA database.