Single-family housing starts in January were at a rate of 993,000, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 8.4% below the revised December figure of 1.08 million.
Privately-owned housing starts in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.36 million, which is 9.8% below the revised December estimate of 1.51 million and 0.7% below the January 2024 rate of 1.37 million.
Single-family authorizations in January were at a rate of 996,000, virtually unchanged from the previous month. Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.483 million, a scant 0.1% uptick from the revised December rate of 1.48 million but 1.7% below the January 2024 rate of 1.5 million.
Single-family housing completions in January were at a rate of 982,000, a 7.1% rise from the revised December rate of 917,000. Privately-owned housing completions in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.65 million, up 7.6% from the revised December estimate of 1.53 million and 9.8% above the January 2024 rate of 1.5 million.
“The single-family home building market is facing competing concerns and opportunities for 2025,” said National Association of Home Builders Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “Given persistent affordability concerns, reducing inefficient regulatory costs would offer the best policy path to improve attainable housing supply and bring down shelter inflation.”
First American Deputy Chief Economist Odeta Kushi observed, “Some context on today’s single-family housing starts and permits numbers: when smoothing out the series using a six-month average, we see a bottoming out and beginning of a positive trend. Also important to note that single-family starts remain nearly 20% above the five-year, pandemic average. Single-family permits are up 24% from that average.”
Kathy Jones, chief fixed income strategist at the Schwab Center for Financial Research, opined that January’s “weather may have contributed to the fall. Nonetheless, with mortgage rates high and rising job uncertainty, housing activity may be soft this year.”
