The Commerce Department reported on Friday the housing starts climbed by 16.9 percent m-o-m in December to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.608 million (the highest level since December 2006), while building permits fell by 3.9 percent m-o-m to an annual rate of 1.416 million.

Economists had forecast housing starts increasing to a pace of 1.375 million units last month and building permits falling to a pace of 1.468 million units.

Data for November was revised to show homebuilding growing to a pace of 1.375 million units, instead of increasing at a rate of 1.365 million units as previously reported.

According to the report, permits for single-family homes, the largest segment of the market, decreased 0.5 percent m-o-m to a rate of 916,000 units in December, while approvals for the multi-family homes segment dropped 9.6 percent m-o-m to a 500,000 unit-rate.

In the meantime, groundbreaking on single-family homes jumped 11.2 percent m-o-m to a rate of 1.055 million units in December (the highest level since June 2007), while housing starts for the multi-family climbed 29.8 percent m-o-m to a 553,000 -unit pace.