Construction on new housing dropped in Decembﷺer, but it was still more t꧑han analysts were expecting, while building permits showed that homebuilders remained confident about the direction of the housing market as mortgage rates have moved lower.

Housing starts came in at a 1.46 million annual rate in December, a 4.3% drop from the 1.53 million reported by the Census Bureau for November. That's above the 1.43 million reading that analysts were expecting. Compared wiꦦth the December 2022 rate of 1.36 million, last month’s reading showed a 7.6% increase.

The December drop follows a big jump in the prior month, where the report showed that November’s revised-lower figures were still nearly 11% 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:higher than October’s reading. Anal❀ysts said the report showed the🗹 housing market is poised to continue to improve. 

“Despite the month-over-month decline in December starts, construction activity remains close to pre-pಌandemic levels,” Jeffre✅y Roach, LPL Financial chief economist, said. “The low supply of existing homes on the market is nudging potential buyers to new construction.”

The report for December comes amid increasing optimism in the housing market as mortgage rates declined to about 6.7% last week from around 7.8% in October. The homebuilder sentiment index moved higher for the second consecutive month, while some homebuilding industry executives have also forecast an improving market in comments made during recent 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:earnings calls. 

This can also be seen in 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:building permit figures, which serve as an indicator of future construction, Roach said. At a 1.5 million annual rate in December, building permit rates came in above the 1.48 million forecast, and 1.9% higher🅰 than the prior month.