Steel Markets
December 23, 2013
Housing Starts and Permits in November
Written by Peter Wright
Finally the first data on housing starts since August! Total starts in November shot up to 1,091,000, (annualized), the highest since February 2008. Both single and multi family starts were the strongest since H1 2008.
The three month moving average of starts was also very encouraging. At the present rate of increase, single family could reach the one million rate by the end of next year (Figure 1). Multi family have already fully recovered from the recession so the recent result was surprising for this sector. It may be that we are witnessing a long term shift in the mix of housing away from single towards apartments. Prior to the recession the ratio of single to multifamily units was six to one. Today the ratio is only two to one. The recent surge in starts was driven primarily by the South region and to a lesser extent by the Mid West. The North East and the West have been more or less flat for the last ten months (Figure 2).
