The monthly report
on new residential construction from the Commerce Department revealed on Friday
that housing starts tumbled by 14.8 per cent m-o-m in January 2024 to a
seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.331 million (the lowest level since August 2023 (1.305 million)),
while building permits fell by 1.5 per cent m-o-m to a seasonally adjusted
annual rate of 1.470 million.
Economists had forecast
housing starts of 1.460 million units for January and building permits of 1.509
million units.
Data for December
2023 was revised to show homebuilding growing at a pace of 1.562 million units,
instead of rising at a rate of 1.460 million units as reported originally.
According to
the report, permits for single-family homes, the largest segment of the market,
increased by 1.6 per cent m-o-m in January, while approvals for the
multi-family homes segment (includes 2 to 4 and 5 or more housing units) declined
by 7.9 per cent m-o-m.
In the meantime, groundbreaking on single-family
homes dropped by 4.7 per cent m-o-m in January, while multi-unit starts tumbled
by 35.8 per cent m-o-m.