U.S. housing starts rise to one-year high

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. housing starts in November rose to a one-year high, signaling stronger builder confidence in the housing market, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday.

Overall housing starts increased 3.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.297 million units in November, the highest level since October 2016, the department said. Economists had expected a 1.25 million annual rate for housing starts last month.

Meanwhile, single-family housing starts rose 5.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 930,000 last month, the highest level since September 2007.

"The increase in single-family production is consistent with builder confidence gains, and shows builders are optimistic about new federal policies aimed to promote small business growth," said Granger MacDonald, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

A separate report from the NAHB on Monday showed that builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes increased five points to a level of 74 in December, its highest reading since 1999.

"Builders are continuing to increase single-family production to meet growing demand for housing," NAHB chief economist Robert Dietz said, adding U.S. single-family starts should continue to make gains next year with low unemployment and increasing owner-occupied household formation. Enditem