Renter Nation Strikes As Multifamily Units Spark Surge In US Housing Starts, Permits In December

Despite rising rates, weakening sentiment, and Omicron anxiety, Housing Starts and Building Permits unexpectedly surged in December. Starts jumped 1.4% MoM (vs expectations of 1.7% drop) and Permits soared 9.1% MoM (crushing expectations of a modest 0.8% drop)…

Source: Bloomberg

This is the 3rd straight month of increasing starts and permits and the biggest monthly jump in building permits since July 2020.

The total building permits for 2021 hit 1.873mm and starts rose to 1.702mm (the highest end of year print since 2006)…

Multifamily permits jumped to 675K SAAR in Dec, up from 563K, and the highest on record. Single family starts 1.172MM, down modestly from 1.199MM in November but not too far from all time highs of 1.315MM in Dec 2020

Multifamily starts surged from 461K to 524K SAAR, highest since Jan 2020 which was an all time high, and SECOND HIGHEST ON RECORD…

The silver lining of all this – a surge in rental units in the pipeline with record multifamily (rental) housing permits, 2nd highest multifamily housing starts – should help reverse trend in record rents.