Home builders in the U.S. are combatting high costs and labor shortages but that doesn’t appear to be slowing them down. According to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. homebuilding has increased to a nine-month high as of December, driven largely by a surge in multi-family housing projects.
Housing starts also soared last month. Housing starts are construction projects that have been authorized for construction but not yet started. Starts rose 1.4 percent during the month of December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.702 million units, the highest level since March. This beat economists’ expectations, that had predicated in a Reuters poll that housing starts would actually fall in December to a rate of 1.650 million units.
Today, conforming no-point 30-year fixed mortgage rates are averaging 3.0 percent and 15-year rates are near 2.25 percent.
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