• 1.702 millions homes were started in December 2021 (SAAR), up 1.4% from November and 2.5% from December 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• There were 1.873 million housing permits issued in December (SAAR), up 9.1% from November and 6.5% from a year ago.
• Builders completed 1.295 million homes last month (SAAR), down 8.7% from November and 6.6% from December 2020.

Housing starts had one last push in store to end 2021, rising modestly from November against expectations for a small decline — a fitting conclusion to a year of remarkable stability for housing starts. Across the United States, homebuilders reliably broke ground on between 125,000 and 140,000 homes almost every month in 2021, and by one common measure, last year was the second-least volatile year for housing starts since 2005. Throughout the year, competing forces held residential construction firmly in place. New homes sales were buoyed by an improving labor market, low mortgage rates and surging demand, but also anchored by rising inflation, supply chain challenges and natural disasters. Permits data, which also came in unexpectedly strong, indicate the strength we saw at the end of 2021 will very likely carry over into the first few months of 2022. And rising wages, relaxed constraints on raw materials, and favorable demographics should lead to faster growth in housing starts by the end of this year.