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Overall
construction spending in the United States decreased by 0.1 percent during January, to a seasonally adjusted and annualized rate (SAAR) of $827.0 billion. Only the private residential category posted an increase relative to December ($4.4 billion and 1.8 percent).
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Total
housing starts rose by 1.5 percent in January, to 699,000 units (SAAR). Single-family starts fell to 508,000 units (by -5,000 units or 1.0 percent); multi-family starts, by contrast, rose to 191,000 units (by +15,000 units or 8.5 percent), 4.0 percent below year earlier levels.
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New-home sales retreated in January, by 0.9 percent, to 321,000 (SAAR). The median price of new homes sold rose by 0.3 percent, to $217,100. Although single-unit starts fell more quickly than sales (respectively, -5,000 and -3,000), the three-month average starts-to-sales ratio jumped almost to 1.6 in January.
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Single-unit completions fell by 14.9 percent; the inventory of new single-family homes shrank in both absolute terms (-3,000 units) and months of inventory (0.1 month). Inventory stood at 151,000 units and 5.6 months. As has repeatedly been the case since March 2011, the number of new homes for sale was its lowest since such records began in January 1963.
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Existing home sales fared better than their new-home counterparts in January, rising by 190,000 units (SAAR) or 4.3 percent. The share of total sales comprised of new homes ticked down by 0.3 percentage point, to 6.6 percent.
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Because the median price of existing homes sold fell by $8,200 (5.0 percent), to $154,400,
housing affordability jumped to a new all-time high. This followed on the heels of decreases in the not seasonally adjusted 10- and 20-city S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices during December (both -1.1 percent).
“In terms of prices, the housing market ended 2011 on a very disappointing note,” said
David Blitzer, chair of the Index Committee at S&P Indices. “With this month’s report we saw all three composite hit new record lows. While we thought we saw some signs of stabilization in the middle of 2011, it appears that neither the economy nor consumer confidence was strong enough to move the market in a positive direction as the year ended.
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“After a prior three years of accelerated decline, the past two years has been a story of a housing market that is bottoming out but has not yet stabilized. Up until today’s report we had believed the crisis lows for the composites were behind us, with the 10-City Composite originally hitting a low in April 2009 and the 20-City Composite in March 2011. Now it looks like neither was the case, as both hit new record lows in December 2011. The National Composite fell by 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter alone, and is down 33.8 percent from its 2nd quarter 2006 peak. It also recorded a new record low.
“In general, most of the regions also posted weak data in December. Eighteen of the cities saw average home prices fall in December over November. Seventeen of the cities have seen monthly declines for at least three consecutive months. In addition to both monthly composites, 10 of the cities saw home prices fall by more than 1.0 percent during the month of December. The pick-up in the economy has simply not been strong enough to keep home prices stabilized. If anything it looks like we might have reentered a period of decline as we begin 2012.”
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