November Housing Starts Tumble 19%

The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Thursday morning that new housing starts in November tumbled to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.09 million, a decrease of 18.7% from the upwardly revised October rate of 1.34 million and a decrease of 6.9% compared with the November 2015 rate of 1.171 million. The consensus estimate from a survey of economists expected a rate of around 1.23 million.

The revision to the October rate added 17,000 new housing starts from the previously reported total.

The seasonally adjusted rate of new building permits fell in November to 1.201 million, down 4.7% from the upwardly revised September rate of 1.26 million and down 6.6% from the November 2015 rate of 1.286 million. The consensus estimate called for 1.24 million new building permits.

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Single-family housing starts rose in November to an annualized rate of 828,000, down 4.1% from the downwardly revised October rate of 863,000. Single-family starts fell 6.9% year over year in November.

Permits for new single-family homes rose 0.5% month over month in November to an adjusted annual rate of 778,000 from an upwardly revised total of 774,000 in October. The rate rose 5.9% year over year.

Multifamily starts for buildings with five or more units dropped by 31.7% year over year in November and fell by 43.9% compared with October.

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