the numbers construction on new us homes fell a seasonally adjusted 14 in december to 138 million the commerce department said thursday the drop in construction on homes followed the decline in november when housing starts also fell by 18 economics polled by the wall street journal expected housing starts to drop to a 136 million rate from november’s initial estimate of 143 million housing starts are at the lowest level since july 2022 the annual rate of total housing starts fell from 218 from the previous year in 2022 america began building 155 million homes that’s 3 less than what started in 2021 in november housing starts were revised to a drop of 18 of 14 million as compared to a previous drop of 05 building permits for new homes fell 16 to 133 million in december economists had expected building permits to fall to a 135 million rate from november’s initial estimate of 143 million key details on an unadjusted basis housing starts fell 107 in december the construction pace of singlefamily homes jumped 113 in december but apartments fell 189 permits for singlefamily homes fell 65 in december while permits in buildings with at least five units rose by 71 regionally construction of homes surged in the northeast singlefamily construction in the northeast led the jump with a 969 increase only the midwest reported a drop in singlefamily construction big picture while rates are dropping and buyers are coming back on board builders are still feeling gloomy overall about the future they’re keen to offload existing inventory and are scaling back new construction as costs rise this is likely to increase the shortage of homes in america market reaction us stocks djia spx were set to open higher early wednesday the yield on the 10year treasury note tmubmusd10y rose above 34