Washington, DC, January 19--Housing starts in December jumped 10.9% reaching a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.004 million, according to the Commerce Department.
Economists were anticipating an increase of 7.2% during the month to an annual rate of 1.900 million.
For the entire year, an estimated 1.953 million housing units were started, which was 5.7% above the 1.847 million rate reached in 2003. The annual figures are not seasonally adjusted. The 2004 increase represents the fourth consecutive annual increase. Starts have gone up every year since falling 4.4% in 2000.
November housing starts were revised slightly higher and seen dropping 12.5% to 1.807 million. Heavy rain in the South and West was blamed by analysts for delaying groundbreakings that month. Commerce originally reported starts down 13.1% to 1.771 million for November.
Building permits in December were off 0.3% to a 2.021 million annual rate.
Single-family housing starts rose 13.1% in December to 1.678 million. Multi-family starts were up by 1.7%.
Regionally, housing starts rose 5.7% to 168,000 in the Northeast, 18.8% to 379,000 in the Midwest, 10.6% to 941,000 in the South, and 7.9% to 516,000 in the West.
