Housing starts dropped 1.4% in December 2022 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.382 million units, according to reuters.com. Economists expected starts to come in at a rate of 1.359 million units.
Applications for building permits, a good indication of future activity, fell 1.6% to 1.33 million units in December 2022.
Single-family housing starts rose 11.3% to a rate of 909,000 units, and multifamily starts fell 18.9% to a rate of 463,000 units. Building permits for single-family homes declined 6.5% to a rate of 730,000 units, and permits for multifamily homes rose 7.1% to a rate of 555,000.
Housing starts fell 3% in 2022, and building permits dropped 5%.
