It is not at all clear why this chart is deserving of getting updated every month. Perhaps a better approach for 2011 would be to draw a line straight across the bottom and then check in at year-end to see how different that was from the actual data. My guess? Not much. We’ll see… Being that it’s still 2010, be advised that the Census Bureau reported(.pdf) housing starts rose 3.9 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted rate of 555,000 and permits for new construction fell 4.0 percent to an annual rate of 530,000.

Housing starts are 77 percent below the 2005 peak and permits are down 76 percent from the high, both measures of homebuilding activity now between one-third and one-half of what was considered “normal” prior to the housing bubble.