Housing starts rose 15.8% in December 2024 to 1.499 million units, hitting a 10-month high, according to Reuters. Economists had expected starts to climb to a rate of 1.32 million units.
Applications for building permits, a good indication of future activity, fell 0.7% to 1.483 million units in December 2024.
Single-family housing starts rose 3.3% to a rate of 1.05 million units. Multifamily starts jumped 58.9% to a rate of 418,000 units. Building permits for single-family homes rose 1.6% to a rate of 992,000 units, and permits for multifamily homes fell 5.8% to a rate of 437,000 units.
An estimated 1.364 million housing units were started in 2024, down 3.9% from 2023.
