Solid Starts

In December, housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.67 million, their best since 9/06 and up 5.2% Y-o-Y. Single-family activity was up 28% Y-o-Y, multifamily starts fell 39%, both percentages being strongly Covid-19 influenced. Total starts were 1.4 million in 2020, up 7% from 1.3 million in 2019. I suspect 2021 starts hit 1.5 million with single-family starts finally returning to normal, multifamily is already there.