Write an article about an optimistic month for homebuilding in the South as housing starts jumped to a 10-month high. Housing starts jumped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 853,000 to close out 2024, this was up a whopping 17.7% from November and was the highest level since February. Single-family starts held at 617k in December. Building permits in the South saw slight uptick to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 808,000 in December, up 1.0% from November and the highest level since August. Single-family permits rose 3.0% to 593k in December, the highest level since February. The only downside was housing completions which fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 738,000 in December, a big 17.4% drop from November and the lowest levels sinceApril 2023. Single-family completions also saw a big drop with a 17.5% decline to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 486k in December, the lowest level since August 2020. Nationally, building permits fell 0.6% while housing starts jumped 15.8% in December. Economists had projected a bigger 2.,2% decline for permits and smaller 2.0% rise in December.
