Housing starts get a double-digit boost

Housing starts got the double-digit treatment in November, performing slightly ahead of expectations to secure a 10.5% increase over the previous month.

Total housing starts came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,173,000, up from October's revised estimate of 1,062,000 and up 16.5% year-over-year.

Single-family housing starts clocked in at 768,000, up 7.6%

Where building permits are concerned, the road ahead looks even more promising: a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,289,000 in November marked an 11.0% improvement over October and a 19.5% gain over November 2014.

However, momentum in the single-family market seems slightly less marked, with a rate of 723,000 building permits only 1.1% above October's.

Regionally, the South carried the momentum forward, logging a 21.3% monthly increase in starts.

Starts also got a modest 6.3% bump in the West, but they decreased 8.5% in the Northeast and were flat in the Midwest.