us home builders started construction on homes at a seasonallyadjusted annual rate of roughly 17 million in december representing a 1 increase from the previous month the us census bureau reported wednesday compared with december 2020 housing starts were up 25 meanwhile permitting for new homes occurred at a seasonallyadjusted annual rate of 187 million up 9 from november and 65 from a year ago economists polled by marketwatch had expected housing starts to occur at a median pace of 165 million and building permits to come in at a median pace of 171 million