Source: CNN Business —
US home building fell again in January, marking five straight months of declines, even as mortgage rates moderated and inflation cooled.
Housing starts, a measure of new home construction, fell by 4.5% in January from December. That’s down 21.4% from a year ago, according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau. Starts in January fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.31 million, down from the revised December estimate of 1.37 million.
Housing starts had big drops in May and July last year, when spiking mortgage rates pushed many prospective home buyers to the sidelines. Starts bounced back slightly in August, but have been falling since then.
Single‐family housing starts in January also dropped, down 4.3% from the revised December figure.
With mortgage rates that have trended lower since November, builders have begun to feel more optimistic that conditions may improve in 2023. But a recent monster jobs report and inflation that isn’t cooling as quickly as most would like mean that inflation concerns remain, along with volatile mortgage rates.
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