Housing Starts in Yehudah and Shomron Jump

Housing starts in Yehudah and Shomron rose in the first half of 2016 compared to the same period a year earlier, the Central Bureau of Statistics said. Overall, there were a total of 6.9 percent fewer housing starts reported this year than last, but housing starts in Yehudah and Shomron were up 16.7 percent.

Yerushalayim was also a popular city for new construction. Housing starts there were up 18 percent in the first half of the year compared to a year earlier. In Tel Aviv, housing starts were 11 percent higher in 2016’s first half over the same period in 2015.

Areas where construction was down included Haifa, where housing starts were 35 percent lower this year than last, the entire southern region (11 percent), and the central region outside of Tel Aviv (9.4 percent).

Completed apartments were also fewer in the first six months of 2016, down 11.5 percent, the CBS said. A total of 19,880 homes were completed in the period in 2016, compared to 22,467 in the same period in 2015, the statistics said.