U.S. Housing Starts Rise in December to More Than 14-Year High
22 January 2021 - 1:14AM
Dow Jones News
By Xavier Fontdegloria
Construction of new homes in the U.S. increased in December for
the fourth consecutive month, reaching the highest level since
September 2006, signaling the housing market ended the year on a
strong footing, data from the Commerce Department showed Thursday.
Here are the main takeaways from the report:
--Housing starts, a measure of U.S. homebuilding, increased by
5.8% in December compared with November, to a seasonally adjusted
annual rate of 1.669 million. This is above The Wall Street Journal
poll of economists, who expected starts to increase by 0.8%, to an
annual pace of 1.56 million.
--The current level of starts is above February's pre-pandemic
annual rate of 1.57 million and 5.2% higher if compared with the
same month a year earlier.
--In November, housing starts amounted to an upwardly revised
1.578 million from an earlier estimate of 1.547 million.
--Monthly housing starts data are volatile and are often
revised. December figures came with a margin of error of 11
percentage points.
--Residential permits, which can be a bellwether for future home
construction, increased by 4.5% in December, at a seasonally
adjusted annual rate of 1.709 million. The figure beats economists'
forecasts of a 1.8% fall to an annual pace of 1.61 million.
--U.S. housing starts report for December compares with
January's fall of the indicator compiled by the National
Association of Homebuilders, which showed a slight decline of
confidence in the single-family housing market.
Write to Xavier Fontdegloria at xavier.fontdegloria@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 21, 2021 08:59 ET (13:59 GMT)
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