Global| Dec 17 2019U.S. Housing Starts Increase as Building Permits Strengthen
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
New home building remained strong during November. Housing starts increased 3.2% (13.6% y/y) to 1.365 million (SAAR) from 1.323 million in October, revised from 1.314 million. The Action Economics Forecast Survey had expected 1.346 [...]
New home building remained strong during November. Housing starts increased 3.2% (13.6% y/y) to 1.365 million (SAAR) from 1.323 million in October, revised from 1.314 million. The Action Economics Forecast Survey had expected 1.346 million starts for last month.
Multi-family starts increased 4.9% last month (7.3% y/y) to 427,000 following an 11.8% improvement during October. Single-family starts increased 2.4% in November (16.7% y/y) to 938,000 after October's rise of 1.6%.
Starts in the South rose 10.3% (13.4% y/y) to 752,000, the highest level since March 2007. In the West, starts improved 1.4% (22.7% y/y) to 351,000, the highest level since September of last year. Moving lower last month were starts in the Midwest where they fell 15.5% (+9.7% y/y) to 158,000. They've been trending sideways since 2016. Starts in the Northeast declined 3.7% (-4.6% y/y) to 104,000, the lowest level since July.
A 1.4% increase (11.1% y/y) in building permits to 1.482 million brought them to the highest level since May 2007. Permits to build multi-family homes increased 2.5% to 564,000 (14.9% y/y) while single-family permits rose 0.8% to 918,000 (8.9% 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.
| Housing Starts (000s, SAAR) | Nov | Oct | Sep | Nov Y/Y % | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 1,365 | 1,323 | 1,266 | 13.6 | 1,250 | 1,209 | 1,178 |
| Single-Family | 938 | 916 | 902 | 16.7 | 873 | 852 | 786 |
| Multi-Family | 427 | 407 | 364 | 7.3 | 377 | 357 | 392 |
| Starts By Region | |||||||
| Northeast | 104 | 108 | 114 | -4.6 | 111 | 111 | 116 |
| Midwest | 158 | 187 | 158 | 9.7 | 171 | 181 | 185 |
| South | 752 | 682 | 687 | 13.4 | 631 | 603 | 585 |
| West | 351 | 346 | 307 | 22.7 | 337 | 314 | 292 |
| Building Permits | 1,482 | 1,461 | 1,391 | 11.1 | 1,330 | 1,286 | 1,207 |
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
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