Housing Starts And Building Permits Remain In Uptrends

Housing Starts & Building Permits Better Than Headlines Imply

Yes, December's housing starts and building permits were down... from November's annualized pace. There's a proverbial "rest of the story" though. That is, November's permits were impressively and abnormally strong, and November's starts weren't too shabby either. And, both data sets remain in long-term uptrends.

The specifics: The annualized pace of housing starts slumped 2.5% to 1.15 million units. The number of permits issued in December fell to a pace of 1.23 million, down 3.9% from November's almost heroic pace.

The charts of both sets of data below tell the tale. Though both have ebbed and flowed since turning the corner in 2011, the bigger trend has been one of decided growth.

Building Permits & Housing Starts Chart

Permits for rental fell by 13.5% to a pace of 455,000, while single-family permits rose by 1.8% to 740,000. That's the highest single-family permit pace since 2007.