December Housing Starts

December Housing Starts
Updated: 10-Jan-26 09:31 ET

Highlights

Housing starts in October declined 4.6% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.246 million (Briefing.com consensus: 1.340 million).
Building permits decreased 0.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.412 million (Briefing.com consensus: 1.355 million).

Key Factors

The change in single-unit starts by region: Northeast (+44.2%); Midwest (+22.6%); South (+8.2%); and West (-21.4%).
The change in single-unit permits by region: Northeast (+3.4%); Midwest (-5.3%); South (-0.6%); and West (+2.2%).
Multi-unit starts declined 22.0% month-over-month, while multi-unit permits were flat month-over-month.
The number of units under construction at the end of the period dipped 0.2% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.315 million, with single-unit dwellings under construction sliding 0.8% to 596,000.

Big Picture

The key takeaway from the report is that the weakness in starts was driven entirely by multi-family units. Single-unit starts were up 5.4% month-over-month and at their highest level since July.