US housing construction jumps 16.9% in December
Source: AP
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Construction of new homes surged in December to the highest level in 13 years, capping a year in which falling mortgage rates and a strong labor market helped lift the prospects of the housing industry.
The Commerce Department reported Friday that builders started construction on 1.61 million homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate in December, up 16.9% from the November pace of home building.
Housing construction has been rising since July, helped by falling mortgage rates and increased demand as the unemployment rate approached a half-century low. For the year, builders started work on a total of 1.29 million homes, the best showing since 2007.
The December building rate was the strongest number since December 2006 during the last housing boom.
FILE - In this Oct. 2, 2019, file photo, a carpenter works on a construction site in North Andover, Mass. On Friday, Jan. 17, 2020, the Commerce Department reports on U.S. home construction in December. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
Read more: https://apnews.com/31a7a9252a7846ec8f2e49e861625870
= new reply since forum marked as read
The post-real-estate-collapse period in the home construction market has been extreme. The last decade has shown lower figures than any decade for over 60 years. Well below that needed to provide for population growth.
If you adjust on a per-capita basis, the 2010's saw roughly half the home construction of the 80s, 90s, and 2000's (with the 60s and 70s being much higher than all four of the other decades).
"Best since 2007" doesn't say much... because 2007 was already half-way down the crash curve from the peak. Today's number is really just getting back to normal after a dozen years of drought. Getting back to the pre-collapse peak would take another 60-80% growth from here.
On edit - Here's a good illustration. It's several years old, but you can compare the most recent report to that yellow line and see that the current figure is really just getting back to normal.
