Due entirely to a nearly 13 percent gain in the multifamily sector, total housing starts rose 2.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.56 million units in November, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

"Overall housing production remained relatively strong in November as activity on the multifamily side rose to a rate of 342,000 units and favorable mortgage interest rates helped keep the single-family side virtually unchanged from October," said Robert Mitchell, president of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Rockville, Md. "However, signs of some erosion in the single-family market are beginning to emerge on the heels of recent stock-market volatility, lower consumer confidence and higher energy prices."

Starts were down in three out of four regions in November. The Northeast posted a nearly 11 percent decline, while the Midwest and South posted declines of nearly 2 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively. The West was the only exception to the rule, with a 28 percent increase that more than offset a significant decline in the previous month.

Residential building permits, which can be an indicator of future building activity, fell by more than 10 percent in the Midwest and registered a moderate gain of less than 3 percent in the West during November. Gains of 6.5 percent and 11.8 percent were recorded in the South and Northeast, respectively. NAHB is predicting just under 1.6 million housing starts for all of 2000, down approximately 4.7 percent from last year's 1.68 million starts.

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