New Housing Starts Tank in January
ThinkstockThe U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Wednesday morning that new housing starts in January rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 880,000. That was a decrease of 16% from the upwardly revised…
The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Wednesday morning that new housing starts in January rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 880,000. That was a decrease of 16% from the upwardly revised December rate of 1.05 million and a drop of 2% compared with the January 2013 rate of 983,000. The consensus estimate from a survey of economists expected a rate of around 950,000.
The seasonally adjusted rate of new building permits fell to 937,000, which is 5.4% below the revised December rate of 991,000 but 2.4% higher than the January 2013 rate of 915,000. The consensus estimate called for 995,000 new permits. The October number marked the year-to-date high.
Single-family housing starts fell to an annualized rate of 537,000 in January, down 15.9% from the revised December rate of 681,000.
Permits for new single-family homes fell 1.3% in January, to an adjusted annual rate of 602,000, from a revised total of 610,000 in December.
The December total was revised up by 51,000 new starts, which accounts for about half the January drop. The weather is going to get a good share of the blame for the other half of the decline. The important thing remains inventory, and that continues to rise slowly.
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Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.
