Housing starts rose in January from a year ago, according to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Census Bureau. Building starts and housing completions also were markedly higher than a year ago.
Housing starts checked in at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.099 million, up 1.8 percent from January 2015 and down 3.8 percent from December 2015. Single-family housing starts were at a rate of 731,000, 3.9 percent below December’s results.
Building permits were a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.202 million in January, up 13.5 percent from January 2015, but down 0.2 percent below December 2015.
Housing completions were at a 1.057 million rate, up 8.4 percent from January 2015 and up 2 percent from December 2015.