U.S. Housing Starts Ease in November
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
• Single-family starts fall sharply as multi-family starts increase.
• Decline is pronounced in the Northeast.
• Building permits decline sharply.
Total housing starts slipped 0.5% (-16.4% y/y) during November to 1.427 million units (SAAR) from 1.434 million in October, revised from 1.425 million. Starts in November were 20.9% lower last month than the April 2022 peak. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 1.40 million starts in November.
Single-family starts declined 4.1% (-32.1% y/y) last month to 828,000 after falling 3.4% to 863,000 in October. Multi-family starts rose 4.9% (23.3% y/y) to 599,000 after easing 0.2% in October.
Housing starts remained regionally mixed. In the Northeast, starts declined 18.6% (-27.2% y/y) to 83,000, the third straight month of sharp decline. November starts in the Midwest fell 6.5% (-0.5% y/y) to 215,000 after rising 10.0% in October. Starts in the West increased 8.3% last month (-20.7% y/y) to 341,000 following a 14.2% October rise. Starts in the South edged 0.1% higher (-16.7% y/y) after rising 6.2% in October.
Building permits declined 11.2% (-22.4% y/y) during November to 1.342 million after falling 3.3% in October. Single-family permits weakened 7.1% (-29.7% y/y) to 781,000. It was the ninth straight consecutive monthly decline. Multi-family permits declined 16.4% (-9.2% y/y) to 561,000 after falling 3.3% in October.
The housing starts and permits figures can be found in Haver's USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in the AS1REPNA database.
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.
More Economy in Brief
