Sharp fall in US December housing starts, but permits stable
Homebuilding activity in the US hit the skids at the end of the year in part due to poor weather.
US housing starts plummeted by 8.2% month-on-month in December, reaching an annualised rate of 1.192m, according to the Department of Commerce.
Economists had projected a pace of 1.270m.
Starts also declined versus a year ago, dropping by 6.0%.
Single family housing starts were especially weak, declining by 11.8% to 836,000.
On the other hand, building permits, a key lead indicator for activity in the sector, dipped by just 0.1% versus November to a reach a pace of 1.302m (consensus: 1.298m).
"Starts were always likely to correct after overshooting, relative to permits, in November. [...] Permits, however, are much less susceptible to bad weather, and the most important number in this report, single-family permits, rose for the fourth straight month, climbing by 1.8% to 881K, the highest level since August 2007. At that time, the trend was falling sharply; now, it's rising quite strongly. If new home sales can be sustained at their November high, construction activity has further to rise," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.