Housing Starts Falls Record in November

From Yahoo! Finance: Housing starts fall more than expected
New home starts fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 625,000 from a downwardly revised level of 771,000 in October, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

That is a drop of 18.9 percent, the steepest since March 1984, the lowest level since 1959. The total is far below the 740,000 pace that Wall Street economists expected.

Applications for building permits, considered a good sign of future activity, fell by 15.6 percent to 616,000, from an upwardly revised figure of 730,000 in October. Economists expected an annual rate of 700,000 permits, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. Single-family authorizations in November were at a rate of 412,000; this is 12.3 percent below the October figure of 470,000.

The new homes report comes a day after other dour housing news Monday, as the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing market index held at a record-low level of nine in December for the second straight month.

Index readings higher than 50 indicate positive sentiment about the market. But the index has drifted below 50 since May 2006 and has been below 20 since April.

Builders began new single-family homes at an annual rate of 441,000 last month, the department said, 16.9 percent below October's figure of 531,000. That is the steepest drop in single-family home starts since January 1991, and lowest level since 1959 (record).

From Calculated Risk: Housing Starts Decline to Record Low

Privately-owned housing completions in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,084,000. This is 3.3 percent above the revised October estimate of 1,049,000, but is 22.8 percent below the revised November 2007 rate of 1,404,000.

Single-family housing completions in November were at a rate of 760,000; this is 0.9 percent above the October figure of 753,000.

Notice that single-family completions are significantly higher than single-family starts. This is important because residential construction employment tends to follow completions, and completions will probably continue to decline.