Single Family Starts Increase Sharply in November, Near Record Number of Multi-Family Housing Units Under Construction

Housing Starts Increased to 1.560 million Annual Rate in November

Housing Starts Increased to 1.560 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 1,560,000. This is 14.8 percent above the revised October estimate of 1,359,000 and is 9.3 percent above the November 2022 rate of 1,427,000. Single‐family housing starts in November were at a rate of 1,143,000; this is 18.0 percent above the revised October figure of 969,000. The November rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 404,000.

Building Permits:

Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,460,000. This is 2.5 percent below the revised October rate of 1,498,000, but is 4.1 percent above the November 2022 rate of 1,402,000. Single‐family authorizations in November were at a rate of 976,000; this is 0.7 percent above the revised October figure of 969,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 435,000 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) increased in November compared to October.   Multi-family starts were down 33.1% year-over-year in October. Single-family starts (red) increased sharply in November and were up 42.2% year-over-year.

Note that the weakness in 2022 and early 2023 had been in single family starts (red), however the weakness has moved to multi-family now while single family has bounced back from the bottom.

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 collapse and now recovery in single-family starts.

Total housing starts in November were well above expectations, however, starts in September and October were revised down slightly, combined.

The third graph shows the month-to-month comparison for total starts between 2022 (blue) and 2023 (red).

Total starts were up 9.3% in November compared to November 2022.  And starts year-to-date are down 9.9% compared to last year.

Starts were down year-over-year for 16 of the last 19 months (May, July and now November 2023 were the exceptions), and total starts will be down this year - although the year-over-year comparisons are easier in December.

Near Record Number of Multi-Family Housing Units Under Construction

The fourth graph shows housing starts under construction, Seasonally Adjusted (SA).