US Housing data: Housing Starts rise while Building Permits, Completions decrease

By CountingPips.com

The latest housing data out of the US showed that housing starts rose in November while building permits and housing completions slipped lower. Housing starts increased by 3.9 percent in November to an annual rate of 555,000 housing starts following October’s annual rate of 534,000, according to the latest data by the US Commerce Department. On an annual basis and despite the monthly increase, November’s level is 5.8 percent below the November 2009 standing.

Building permits, a measure of future construction, fell by 4.0 percent to an annual rate of 530,000 permits in November. This follows an annual rate of  552,000 building permits registered in October. On an annual basis, November’s building permits are 14.7 percent lower than the November 2009 level.

Housing completion data, released in the same report, showed that housing completions fell by 14.1 percent in November while falling 39.6 percent on an annual basis from the November 2009 housing completion level.

The housing starts and building permits data failed to meet market forecasts which were expecting housing starts to increase by 6.0 percent and building permits to rise by 1.5 percent for the month.