\”
Housing starts rose in December, buoyed by a pickup in multifamily construction.
Data from the Census Bureau showed that housing jumped 15.8% in December to an annual rate of 1.49 million, which was higher than economists\’ expectations for an annual rate of 1.32 million.
Single-family starts had a modest advance. Construction rose 3.3% to an annualized rate of 1.05 million, the strongest pace since February 2024. Meanwhile, construction for multifamily dwellings grew by nearly 62%.
“Housing starts soared at the end of the year, but this does not mean the country is out of the woods when it comes to the problems in the residential housing sector,” Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS, wrote after the release.
“There still is not enough housing in the country, and the construction of residential homes remains historically depressed,” the economist added.
To this point, new construction in 2024 was the slowest it has been since 2019, per Bloomberg. Despite the rise in construction, builders are dealing with elevated mortgage rates. Freddie Mac said mortgage rates increased to 7.04% this week, hitting the highest since May 2024. Rates on a home loan tend to follow US Treasury yields, which had been climbing higher following strong employment data.
\” – rewrite to a total of 500-750 words. Then translate to B1 Indonesian and retrieve only the Indonesian text. Keep HTML tags. Don\’t return the English version, Don\’t echo me back. Don\’t echo the sent text. Only provide indonesian text.