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Housing starts jumped 18.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted
annual rate of 1.230 million units in January, the Commerce
Department said on Friday. Data for December was revised down to
show starts declining to a rate of 1.037 million units instead
of the previously reported pace of 1.078 million units.
Building permits rose 1.4 percent to a rate of 1.345 million
units in January, driven by an increase in permits for the
volatile multi-family housing segment.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts rising
to a pace of 1.197 million units in January. The release of the
January housing starts and building permits report was delayed
by a five-week partial shutdown of the federal government that
ended on Jan. 25.
The housing market hit a soft patch last year amid higher
mortgage rates, expensive lumber as well as land and labor
shortages, which led to tight inventories and less affordable
homes. Investment in homebuilding contracted 0.2 percent in
2018, the weakest performance since 2010.
Single-family homebuilding, which accounts for the largest share
of the housing market, surged 25.1 percent to a rate of 926,00
units in January, the highest since May 2018. The increase
followed four straight monthly declines. Single-family
homebuilding rose in all four regions.
Permits to build single-family homes fell 2.1 percent in January
to a pace of 812,000 units, the lowest level since August 2017,
suggesting weakness in single-family homebuilding in the months
ahead.
Starts for the multi-family housing segment rose 2.4 percent to
a rate of 304,000 units in January. Permits for the construction
of multi-family homes increased 7.2 percent to a pace of 533,000
units.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani Editing by Paul Simao)
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