Investing.com - The number of housing starts in the U.S. rose strongly in November, and the number of building permits issued also rose sharply.
The upbeat data boosted optimism over the health of the housing sector.
Housing starts jumped 10.5% to an annual unit rate of 1.173 million units from October’s total of 1.062 million units.
Analysts had expected an increase of 6.6% to 1.135 million units.
The number of building permits issued rose 11.0% to 1.289 million from October’s total of 1.161 million.
Analysts had forecast a decline of 1.0% to 1.150 million units.