The monthly report on new residential construction from the Commerce
Department showed on Tuesday that housing starts surged by 14.8 per cent m-o-m
in November to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.560 million (the highest
level since May (1.583 million)) while building permits fell by 2.5 per cent
m-o-m to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.460 million (the lowest level
since July (1.443 million)).
Economists had predicted housing starts to accelerate to a pace of 1.360
million units last month and building permits to slow to a pace of 1.470 million units.
Data for October was revised to show homebuilding growing at a pace of
1.359 million units, instead of rising at a rate of 1.372 million units as originally
reported.
According to the report, permits for single-family homes, the largest
segment of the market, increased by 0.7 per cent m-o-m in November, while approvals
for the multi-family homes segment (includes 2 to 4 and 5 or more housing
units) declined by 8.5 per cent m-o-m.
In the meantime, groundbreaking on single-family
homes climbed by 18.0 per cent m-o-m in November, while multi-unit
starts jumped by 8.9 per cent m-o-m.