Nation's Building News Online

Housing Starts Dip, But Permits Rise in April

Housing starts declined 6.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.63 million units in April, due primarily to a substantial dip in multifamily production, the Commerce Department reported last week.

Single-family starts fell 3% in April to an annual rate of 1.36 million. Apparently contributing to the decline was unusually wet weather in parts of the South, where new and unused single-family permits were on the rise.

NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders noted that rising permit issuance and permit backlogs last month for the nation overall in both the single-family and multifamily sectors suggested that there would be a boost in housing starts activity in May.

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Multifamily housing starts, which typically show significant volatility from month to month, declined 22% in April to an annual rate of 274,000 units.

Starts were down 11% in the South, 7% in the Midwest, 1.3% in the Northeast and less than 1% in the West.

Building permits, which can be an indicator of future building activity, rose across the board in April. Overall, permits were up 1.2% to a solid 1.71 million-unit rate, while single-family permits rose at the same pace to a rate of 1.33 million units — exactly on par with the total permits issued last year.

Multifamily permits rose 1.1% to 381,000 units during the month.
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