Dive Brief:

• Housing starts fell from November to December, reaching an annual pace of 999,000, and that is fine with the National Association of Home Builders.
• The drop of 9.8% from November's rate still left December as the third-highest month of 2013, and NAHB said it is looking for a good year in 2014.
• Overall housing starts in 2013 were up 18% from 2012, and NAHB's chief economist, David Crowe, said the organization believes this year will see more buying as the labor market improves and pent-up demand is released as people decide it's time to move on a new-home purchase.

Dive Insight:

The 999,000 figure includes starts on both single-family and multifamily buildings. Single-family stood at an annual pace of 667,000 in December, the second-best month of 2013 for that category even though it was 7% below November's rate. Multifamily was at a rate of 312,000 starts, which took it down 17.9%.