U.S. Housing Starts Increase to Eight-Year High in 2015

During all of last year, housing starts increased 10.8% to 1.107 million units. The level was the highest since 2007 and double the 2009 low. During December, starts eased 2.5% to 1.149 million (AR) from 1.179 million, revised from 1.173 million. The latest figure disappointed expectations for 1.21 million starts in the Action Economic Forecast Survey.

Starts of single-family homes jumped 10.4% last year to 715,000 after a 4.9% gain in 2014. For December alone, starts declined 3.3% to 768,000, up 5.0% y/y. Starts in the West declined 6.2% (+12.5% y/y) last month and in the Midwest starts fell 4.6% (-20.8% y/y). Single-family starts were off 4.4% (+27.8% y/y) in the Northeast. Single-family starts in the Midwest declined 1.4% (+6.3% y/y).

Multi-family housing starts during all of last year improved 11.4% to 396,000 following stronger gains during the prior four years. In December alone, multi-family starts eased 1.0% to 381,000 (+6.7% y/y). The drop reflected a 26.2% decline (+10.3% y/y) in the Midwest and a 7.9% drop (+38.1% y/y) in the South. In the West, starts fell 10.8% (-45.8% y/y) but in the Northeast, multi-family starts rose by nearly two-thirds (56.8% y/y).

Building permits increased 11.5% last year. For December alone, however, they backpedaled 3.9% (+17.4% y/y). Permits to build single-family homes rose 1.8% last month (8.2% y/y) but for multi-family units they declined 3.9% (+17.4% y/y).

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