US housing starts rise to five-month high in broad increase

NEW residential construction in the US rose to a five-month high in December, as homebuilders boosted production to take advantage of lower borrowing costs.

Housing starts increased 6.2 per cent to an annual pace of 1.4 million homes in December, indicated figures released Wednesday (Feb 18) by the government, which were delayed by the federal shutdown last autumn. That beat all estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

The advance was broad-based, with both single-family home starts and apartment projects rising at year’s end. 

The stronger construction numbers suggest that builders were growing more confident at year’s end even as they continued to sell off a bloated inventory of new houses.

In December, building permits, which point to future construction, rose 4.3 per cent to an annualised pace of 1.45 million, the highest since March, government data show. Single-family permits fell slightly, however. BLOOMBERG