The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Tuesday morning that new housing starts in December rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.089 million. That was an increase of 4.4% from the upwardly revised November rate of 1.043 million and an increase of 15.3% compared with the December 2013 rate of 1.034 million. The consensus estimate from a survey of economists was for a rate of around 1.041 million.

The upward revision to the November rate totaled 15,000 new housing starts.

However, the seasonally adjusted rate of new building permits slipped in December to 1.032 million. That was down 1.9% from the upwardly revised November rate of 1.052 million and 1% below the December 2013 rate of 1.022 million. The consensus estimate called for 1.052 million new permits.

Single-family housing starts rose to an annualized rate of 728,000 in December, up 7.2% from the upwardly revised November rate of 679,000.

Permits for new single-family homes rose 4.5% in December, to an adjusted annual rate of 667,000 from a downwardly revised total of 638,000 in November.

Multifamily starts for buildings with five or more units, a more volatile number than single-family starts, fell 9.9% year-over-year in December and 12.4% compared with November 2014.

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