-- Mortgage demand up for third straight week
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected housing starts to rise to 580,000 units. November's housing starts were revised upwards to 580,000 units from the previously reported 574,000 units. A separate report from the Labour Department showed producer prices rose 0.2 percent last month as food prices surged, and recorded their largest year-on-year gain since October 2008. Groundbreaking activity dropped a record 38.8 percent to an all-time low of 553,000 units for the whole of 2009.
Starts for single-family homes fell 6.9 percent last month to an annual rate of 456,000 units after rising 4.0 percent in November. Groundbreaking for the volatile multifamily segment rose 12.2 percent to a 101,000 unit annual pace, after surging 69.8 percent in November. Housing is on the mend after a three-year slump and new home construction contributed to economic growth in the third quarter of 2009 for the first time since 2005.
However data such as pending home sales and homebuilder sentiment have hinted at potential weakness in a sector whose collapse triggered the most brutal US recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Muted inflation pressures and the unsettled housing market should allow the Federal Reserve to honour its pledge to keep overnight lending low for "an extended period." Officials next meet on January 26-27 to deliberate on monetary policy.
New building permits, which give a sense of future home construction, rose 10.9 percent to 653,000 units last month, the highest since October 2008. The Mortgage Bankers Association's index of total home loan applications rose 9.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted 575.9. The increase was driven by a 10.7 percent jump in the refinancing index, while home purchase loan demand rose 4.4 percent to 223.0.