Housing Starts Increase at the End of 2024

More houses began construction at the end of 2024. According to the Calculated Risk blog, privately-owned housing starts in December reached 1.49 million, a 15.8% increase from November’s 1.29 million. While housing starts increased month-over-month, year-over-year housing starts decreased by 4.4%. However, for single-family homes, starts have been up year-over-year in 13 of the last 18 months. In December 2024, single-family starts were up by 6.6% year-over-year.

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,483,000. This is 0.7 percent below the revised November rate of 1,493,000 and is 3.1 percent below the December 2023 rate of 1,530,000. Single-family authorizations in December were at a rate of 992,000; this is 1.6 percent above the revised November figure of 976,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 437,000 in December. Read more