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While the number of housing starts declined 4.1% compared to Dec., the number of building permits \u2013 indicators of future housing-start numbers \u2013 rose 0.7%.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The number of U.S. housing starts declined in January, according to a joint release by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. However, the number of building permits \u2013 an indication of future housing-start numbers \u2013 rose both month-to-month and year-to-year.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Housing starts: <\/strong>Privately-owned housing starts in January, a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.64 million, fell 4.1% compared to December numbers. However, they\u2019re up year-to-year by 0.8%.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Permits for single-family homes weighed more heavily in the overall number. At a rate of 1,116,000, single-family starts fell 5.6% below December numbers. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Building permits<\/strong>: Economists consider building permits an estimate of future housing starts, and January numbers were up a bit both month-to-month (0.7%) and year-to-year (0.8%). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The number of single-family permits issued in January rose to 1.2 million, or 6.8% about December numbers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Many experts aren\u2019t ready to draw conclusions from recent data. The January drop in housing starts could reflect a number of temporary headwinds, such as slowdowns due to the omicron variant of COVID-19, and it could reflect supply-side shortages that have postponed some projects months longer than first estimated.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n