Even though the monthly figures showed improvement, December capped the worst year on record for single-family housing construction, and the figures show that 2011 was the third consecutive year of depressed home building in the U.S. Single-family housing starts in December were at a rate of 470,000, or 4.4 percent above the revised November figure of 450,000, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Even though the monthly figures showed improvement, December capped the worst year on record for single-family housing construction, and the figures show that 2011 was the third consecutive year of depressed home building in the U.S. Single-family housing starts in December were at a rate of 470,000, or 4.4 percent above the revised November figure of 450,000, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Builders started 428,600 single-family homes in 2011, the fewest on record dating back a half-century. In a good economy, builders break ground on nearly twice as many single-family homes, according to the Associated Press.
Overall, privately owned housing starts in December were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 657,000, which is 4.1 percent below the revised November estimate of 685,000, but is 24.9 percent above the December 2010 rate of 526,000.
An estimated 606,900 housing units were started in 2011, which is 3.4 percent above the 2010 figure of 586,900. Generally, building 1 million to 1.5 million homes each year in the U.S. is considered healthy.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) noted that December marked the third consecutive month of improvement on the single-family side; it also marked the best pace since April 2010.
"Today's report adds to the growing evidence that demand for new, single-family homes is finally starting to firm up in an increasing number of markets nationwide," said Bob Nielsen, chairman of the NAHB. "This emerging trend is allowing builders to put more crews back to work, and could be even stronger if not for the overly tight credit conditions that prevail for both builders and buyers, as well as the continuing foreclosure crisis and the challenges of obtaining accurate appraisal values on new homes. Policymakers should be doing everything possible to alleviate these problems and nurture the fledgling housing recovery in order to promote job and economic growth."
"This report is in keeping with our expectations for slow but steady improvement in the single-family market, where production hit its lowest yearly rate in over 50 years in 2011," said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "Meanwhile, it should be noted that the decline in multifamily starts in December was coming off a dramatic increase from the previous month and simply brought that sector back closer to trend."
