More bad news in US Housing, Building Permits & Housing Starts drop sharply in December, 2007.

January 17, 2008 - Forex Economic News

More bad news came out of the United States today in the form of statistics on Housing Starts and Building Permits. U.S. Housing Starts in December dropped 14.2 percent compared to November according to data released by the Commerce Department today on new residential construction. December showed a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,006,000 privately-owned housing starts, a decrease from November's 1,173,000 estimated housing starts and the lowest rate in 16 years. Single-family housing starts totaled 794,000 which was 2.9 percent less than November which saw 818,000. The number of housing starts for the year 2007 totaled an estimated 1,353,700 which is a 24.8 percent drop from 1,800,900 total housing starts registered in 2006.

Building permits statistics, used as a predictor of future construction, showed a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,068,000 which is a decrease of 8.1 percent compared to November statistics and a 34.4 percent drop from December 2006. Single-family permits totaled 692,000 which was 10 percent less than November. The statistics for the overall year of 2007 also showed a sharp decrease in building permits as 1,376,900 were authorized, down 25.3 percent from 2006 which numbered 1,838,900.

Housing Completions for December were also decreased compared to November as December posted an annual rate of 1,302,000 privately-owned housing completions. This is a decrease of 7.7 percent compared to November and a whopping 31 percent drop compared to December 2006 which saw 1,887,000. Single family housing completions in December dropped 12 percent against November. The overall year of 2007 registered a 24.2 percent decrease in housing completions compared to totals for 2006.

Tags: Building Permits, Housing Completions, Housing Starts, ----------- Blog index