U.S. housing starts fell slightly for January 2017.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, total 1.25M in Jan vs. 1.22M starts expected.
The housing starts declined 2.6% to an adjusted annual rate of 1.25 million units.
Building Permits Hit a High
Still, December’s starts were revised upward to a rate of 1.28 million units from the previously reported 1.23 million.
On a year-to-year basis, homebuilding was up 10.5% compared to January 2016.
Building permits for construction climbed 4.6% in January to a rate of 1.29 million units, the highest level since November 2015.
The housing market recovery is being driven by high buyer demand, historic low inventories and a strong rental market.
Higher mortgage rates have still not had enough of an impact to hold the growing demand for housing.
In addition, builder’s confidence is also much stronger than at any other time in the last few years.
- Homebuilding for December surged 55.4% in the Northeast, while climbing 20% in the South
- January single-family homebuilding increased by 1.9% to a pace of 823,000 units
- Multi-family housing fell by 10.2% to a rate of 423,000 units