Housing starts staged a comeback in December, rising 10.9 percent from November's disappointing pace, the Commerce Department reported Jan. 19.(Briefly Noted)(Brief Article)

Land Use Law Report, January, 2005

HOUSING STARTS staged a comeback in December, rising 10.9 percent from November's disappointing pace, the Commerce Department reported Jan. 19. Production of single-family homes rose 13.1 percent, and multifamily starts were up 0.6 percent. David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, said bad weather in November was largely responsible for the decline in starts that month.

He acknowledged, however, that rising mortgage rates may cause a decline on the order of 3.0 percent to 4.0 percent in housing starts this year. By region, starts in December rose 18.8 percent in the Midwest and 10.6 percent in the South. Starts were up 7.9 percent in the West and 5.7 percent in the Northeast.