Housing starts bounce back in November, led by a jump in multifamily building. The trailing twelve month growth rate for total housing starts, however, slowed to 4.4% from 5.4% last month. Multifamily starts jumped to 5.2% on a TTM basis, a sharp recovery after dipping as much as 10% on a TTM basis as recently as February.

Permit data has yet to confirm the recent recovery in multifamily building activity as multifamily starts remain lower on a TTM basis by 2.3%. Single Famiy starts continue to moderate to the weakest level since 2015.