Housing Starts Fall in November

(Image courtesy of Census Bureau; Breakout image courtesy of Stephanie Ho/pexels.com)

Privately-owned housing starts in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,289,000, 1.8% below the revised October estimate and 14.6% below last November’s level, the Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced.

However, single-family starts put up an month-over-month increase—they were at 1,011,000, 6.4% above the revised October figure of 950,000.

The November rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 264,000.

Permits were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,505,000. That’s a 6.1% increase from October’s revised rate of 1,419,000, but 0.2% below November 2023.

Single-family homes authorized by permits were at a rate of 972,000, up 0.1% from October.

Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 481,000 in November.

Privately-owned housing completions in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,601,000, down 1.9% from the revised October estimate of 1,632,000, and 9.2% above the November 2023 rate of 1,466,000.

Single-family housing completions in November were at a rate of 1,038,000, 3.3% above the revised October rate.

The November rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 544,000.

“Builders down on today, but betting on tomorrow as housing starts came in below consensus expectations, while permits outperformed,” First American Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi said. “Yet, despite mortgage rates increasing by nearly 40 basis points in November, starts, permits and completions were up in the single-family sector. The modest increase aligns with a pickup in builder sentiment, which had been on a three-month streak of consecutive increases through November but stayed flat in December.”