Ho-hum Housing

November single-family housing starts fell to an annualized rate of 1.173 million, from 1.182 million Y-o-Y. Meanwhile, multifamily starts jumped from 369,000 in 11/20 to 506,000 in 11/21. Flat single-family starts amidst booming demand and the fact that the number of homes under construction rose to the highest level since 1973 suggests that material and labor shortages are substantially delaying completions. New homes will not soon meaningfully boost overall supply.