Major Surge in New U.S. Home Sales & New Housing Starts

By Saul Gross

More Info

Whether you’re navigating the new home sales market or the new construction market, I'm sure you’ve heard great news over the past few weeks. According to media reports, both sectors of the national housing market have made gains recently. If you’re planning on entering the market anytime soon as a buyer or seller, here are the latest trends on the housing market.

A Closer Look at U.S. Single-Family Housing Starts

According to a recent Reuters article, groundbreaking for U.S. single-family homes increased to its highest level in more than 6 years in December. Experts say that this, coupled with a huge jump in permits, hints at a recovering housing market. Here’s what national data revealed about single-family housing starts:

• Single-family housing starts jumped 7.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 728,000-units.
• That figure is the highest it’s been since March 2008.
• The jump in housing starts offset a 0.8% fall in groundbreaking for the multi-family homes segment.
• These two factors combined lifted overall housing starts 4.4% to a 1.09 million-unit rate last month.
• It should be noted that Wall Street had forecast starts rising to a 1.04 million-unit pace.
• For all of 2014, groundbreaking increased 8.8% to 1.01 million units, the highest since 2007.
• Single-family housing starts in 2014 were also the highest in seven years.
• Single-family permits increased 4.5% to their highest level since January 2008.

Equally Positive Signs Seen for New Home Sales

Meanwhile, sales of new homes also showed signs of growth in recent months. Here’s what Reuters reported about this subsection of the market:

• Sales increased 11.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 481,000 units.
• New home sales, which make up roughly 8% of the housing market, saw a total of 435,000 homes sold compared with 429,000 in 2013.

We Help You Become an Informed Buyer or Seller

At Streamline, we believe that buyers and sellers who are well-informed about South Florida's housing market are most likely to gain big from it. This is why we bring you pertinent information about the housing market every month. Check back soon for the latest updates on the current state of the housing market and how it could affect you.