U.S. Housing Starts Fell in December to Five-Month Low

By Xavier Fontdegloria

U.S. housing starts declined in December for a fourth-consecutive month, hitting its lowest level since July, driven by lower multi-family units. Here are the main takeaways from the Commerce Department's report released Thursday:

--Housing starts, a measure of U.S. homebuilding, fell 1.4% in December on month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.382 million.

--Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected starts to decrease 4.7% to 1.36 million.

--Housing starts were 21.8% below the same month a year earlier.

--The decline was driven by an 18.9% drop in the more-volatile multifamily projects, while single-family projects rose by a sharp 11.3%.

--November housing starts data was downwardly revised to 1.401 million from 1.427 million initially estimated.

--Monthly housing starts data are volatile. December data came with a margin of error of 16.9 percentage points.

--Residential permits, which can be a bellwether for future home construction, fell 1.6% in December on month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.33 million. This is the lowest level since May 2020. Economists expected permits to increase 0.6%.

--Sentiment among home builders rose in January for the first time in more than a year, fueling hopes that the current downturn in the housing market could be bottoming out, according to data from the National Association of Home Builders published Wednesday.

Write to Xavier Fontdegloria at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-19-23 0905ET