New Home Construction Jumps, Raising Hopes for Better Housing Market
According to the Census Bureau, U.S. companies initiated construction on a remarkably high number of houses in November. The data indicates a 9% increase in housing starts compared to the previous year, driven predominantly by an 18% surge in the initiation of construction for single-family houses.
According to NBC News, housing starts are measured in rates that are multiplied by 12, with additional adjustments applied, to show how many homes would be built if construction continued at that pace for a full year. At the November clip, companies would have built about 1.1 million single-family homes and 1.56 million homes overall, according to the Census Bureau.
Economists expected a significantly lower rate of 1.36 million total homes, according to a survey conducted by Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
That could be good news for buyers. Housing demand has been overwhelmingly strong since the Covid-19 pandemic began as more millennials started families, and more people were able to do their jobs remotely.
But supplies have been tight. The pandemic disrupted supply chains and slowed construction. After that, mortgage rates began to spike, which made people reluctant to put older homes on the market.
