Construction starts on new homes in the US fell 2 per cent in January, data released Wednesday by the US Commerce Department shows.
Housing starts dropped to a seasonally adjusted, annual rate of 1.065 million, below December’s downwardly revised estimate of 1.087 million. Still, last month’s rate was 18.7 per cent above the 897,000 annual pace for January 2014.
Housing Starts, US
January’s numbers kept up a strong trend in multi-family housing, with builders continuing to bet that the demand for these units will remain strong. Starts on buildings with five or more units rose in January, to 381,000, above December’s revised estimate of 340,000. At the same time, single-family housing starts decreased slightly, falling from December’s revised 727,000 to a (seasonally adjusted, annual) rate of 678,000.
The number of building permits issued fell slightly in January, to a (seasonally adjusted, annual) rate of 1.053 million, 0.7 per cent down from December’s 1.06 million. That level was still 8.1 per cent above the pace one year earlier. Single-family permits stood at 654,000 in January, 3.1 per cent below December, while buildings with five units or more hit a permit rate of 372,000 in January, up from 360,000 the month before.