Housing Starts Increased to 1.499 million Annual Rate in December

From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions

Housing Starts:
Privately-owned housing starts in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,499,000. This is 15.8 percent above the revised November estimate of 1,294,000, but is 4.4 percent below the December 2023 rate of 1,568,000. Single-family housing starts in December were at a rate of 1,050,000; this is 3.3 percent above the revised November figure of 1,016,000. The December rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 418,000.

An estimated 1,364,100 housing units were started in 2024. This is 3.9 percent below the 2023 figure of 1,420,000.

Building Permits:
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,483,000. This is 0.7 percent below the revised November rate of 1,493,000 and is 3.1 percent below the December 2023 rate of 1,530,000. Single-family authorizations in December were at a rate of 992,000; this is 1.6 percent above the revised November figure of 976,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 437,000 in December.

An estimated 1,471,200 housing units were authorized by building permits in 2024. This is 2.6 percent below the 2023 figure of 1,511,100.
emphasis added

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

Multi-family starts (blue, 2+ units) increased month-over-month in December. Multi-family starts were down 8.4% year-over-year. Single-family starts (red) increased in December and were down 2.6% 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 in 2024.

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 December were above expectations and starts in October and November were revised up.

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

Total starts were down 4.4% in December compared to December 2023. The YoY decrease in December total starts was mostly due to a difficult comparison to starts in December 2023.

Single family starts have been up year-over-year in 13 of the last 18 months, whereas multi-family has been up year-over-year in only 3 of last 19 months. For the year, total starts were down 2.6% compared to 2023. Single family starts were up 6.6% YoY in 2024, and multi-family were down 18.8% YoY.

Multi-Family Housing Units Under Construction Continue to Decline

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