by Calculated Risk on 1/17/2014 01:54:00 PM

A few key points:

• Housing starts increased 18.3% in 2013 (initial estimate). This was another solid year-over-year increase.

• Even after increasing 28% in 2012 and 18% in 2013, the 923 thousand housing starts in 2013 were the sixth lowest on an annual basis since the Census Bureau started tracking starts in 1959 (the three lowest years were 2008 through 2012).   Also, this was the fifth lowest year for single family starts since 1959 (only 2009 through 2012 were lower).

• Starts averaged 1.5 million per year from 1959 through 2000.  Demographics and household formation suggests starts will return to close to that level over the next few years. That means starts will probably increase another 50%+ from the 2013 level.

• Residential investment and housing starts are usually the best leading indicator for economy.  Nothing is foolproof as a leading indicator, but this suggests the economy will continue to grow over the next couple of years.

The following table shows annual starts (total and single family) since 2005:

Housing Starts (000s)
	Total	Change	Single Family	Change
2005	2,068.3	---	1,715.8	---
2006	1,800.9	-12.9%	1,465.4	-14.6%
2007	1,355.0	-24.8%	1,046.0	-28.6%
2008	905.5	-33.2%	622.0	-40.5%
2009	554.0	-38.8%	445.1	-28.4%
2010	586.9	5.9%	471.2	5.9%
2011	608.8	3.7%	430.6	-8.6%
2012	780.6	28.2%	535.5	24.4%
2013	923.4	18.3%	617.8	15.4%

I expect another solid increase for housing starts in 2014.

Here is an update to the graph comparing multi-family starts and completions. Since it usually takes over a year on average to complete a multi-family project, there is a lag between multi-family starts and completions. Completions are important because that is new supply added to the market, and starts are important because that is future new supply (units under construction is also important for employment).

These graphs use a 12 month rolling total for NSA starts and completions.

Click on graph for larger image.

The blue line is for multifamily starts and the red line is for multifamily completions.

The rolling 12 month total for starts (blue line) has been increasing steadily, and completions (red line) is lagging behind - but completions will continue to follow starts up (completions lag starts by about 12 months).

This means there will be an increase in multi-family deliveries in 2014, but probably still below the 1997 through 2007 level of multi-family completions.  Multi-family starts will probably move mostly sideways in 2014.

The second graph shows single family starts and completions. It usually only takes about 6 months between starting a single family home and completion - so the lines are much closer. The blue line is for single family starts and the red line is for single family completions.

Starts are moving up, and completions are following. 

Note the exceptionally low level of single family starts and completions.  The "wide bottom" was what I was forecasting several years ago, and now I expect several years of increasing single family starts and completions.