SF Housing Starts Rebound

Single-family housing starts rebounded 8.1% in November after a 15% drop in October, mainly due to a surge in construction activity in the South.The U.S. Census Bureau reported that single-family construction jumped from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.185 million in October to 1.281 million in November. Despite the rebound, starts are still off 28.6% from the level recorded in November 2005. Single-family permits fell 3.1% in November, the 10th consecutive monthly decline. Permits were off 31.3% since November of last year. Construction activity in the South surged 14.1% in November, followed by a 5.6% increase in the Northeast, the Census Bureau reported. Single-family starts rose 1.4% in the West and 1.5% in the Midwest. Meanwhile, multifamily starts rose 4.1% in November to 277,000. For the previous 12 months, multifamily starts are off 7%. The Census Bureau's construction statistics can be found online at http://www.census.gov/const/www/index.html.