Housing Starts Decreased to 1.289 million Annual Rate in November

From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions

Housing Starts:
Privately-owned housing starts in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,289,000. This is 1.8 percent below the revised October estimate of 1,312,000 and is 14.6 percent below the November 2023 rate of 1,510,000. Single-family housing starts in November were at a rate of 1,011,000; this is 6.4 percent above the revised October figure of 950,000. The November rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 264,000.

Building Permits:
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,505,000. This is 6.1 percent above the revised October rate of 1,419,000, but is 0.2 percent below the November 2023 rate of 1,508,000. Single-family authorizations in November were at a rate of 972,000; this is 0.1 percent above the revised October figure of 971,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 481,000 in November.
emphasis added

The first graph shows single and multi-family housing starts since 2000 (including housing bubble).

Multi-family starts (blue, 2+ units) decreased month-over-month in November. Multi-family starts were down 27.6% year-over-year. Single-family starts (red) increased in November and were down 10.2% year-over-year.

Note that the weakness in 2022 and early 2023 had been in single family starts (red), then the weakness moved to multi-family. Multi-family starts might have bottomed earlier this year.

The second graph shows single and multi-family starts since 1968. This shows the huge collapse following the housing bubble, and then the eventual recovery - and the recent weakness.

Total housing starts in November were below expectations, however, starts in September and October were revised up slightly, combined.

The third graph shows the month-to-month comparison for total starts between 2023 (blue) and 2024 (red).

Total starts were down 14.6% in November compared to November 2023. The YoY decrease in November total starts was a combination of further weakness in multi-family starts and a difficult comparison to starts in November 2023.

Single family starts have been up year-over-year in 13 of the last 17 months, whereas multi-family has been up year-over-year in only 2 of last 18 months. Year-to-date (YTD), total starts are down 4.3% compared to the same period in 2023. Single family starts are up 7.2% YTD, and multi-family down 30.1% YTD.

Multi-Family Housing Units Under Construction Continue to Decline

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