the numbers construction on new us homes fell a seasonally adjusted 05 in november to 143 million the commerce department said tuesday the drop in construction on homes follows the decline in october when housing starts also fell by 21 economics polled by the wall street journal expected housing starts to drop to 14 million from october’s initial estimate of 143 million the annual rate of total housing starts fell from 164 from the previous year in october housing starts were revised to a drop of 21 of 143 million as compared to a previous drop of 42 building permits for new homes fell 112 to 134 million in november economists had expected building permits to fall to a 148 million rate from october’s initial estimate of 151 million key details on an unadjusted basis housing starts fell 91 in november the construction pace of singlefamily homes fell 41 in november and apartments rose 48 permits for singlefamily homes fell 71 in november while permits in buildings with at least five units plunged by 179 construction in the west and the south led the jump with an 83 increase and 01 increase respectively big picture while the drop in new home construction was small it was still a fall a big reason why is that mortgage rates are still elevated keeping buyer demand low and builders gloomy rates have come off of the 7 mark and builders have been offering incentives to lure buyers home buyers are barely returning to the market there are signs of optimism though the recent rise in purchase mortgage applications tracked by the mortgage bankers association tells us that people were still buying homes builders also said that even though they were gloomy all of 2022 they were feeling more optimistic about their expectations for sales in the next six months what are they saying singlefamily starts have fallen in 8 of the last 9 months stephen stanley chief economist at amherst pierpont wrote in a note that’s a combined drop of 32 and while apartment starts rose modestly in november expect that number to come back down in december since building permits for those units sank stanley added market reaction us stocks djia spx were set to open lower early tuesday the yield on the 10year treasury note tmubmusd10y rose above 365