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Housing Starts Up Last Month, But Permits Down
After slipping 14.3% in January, housing starts last month rebounded 9.0% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.525 million units, leaving production 28.5% below the pace of a year earlier, the Commerce Department reported on March 20.
On the heels of an 11.2% stumble in January, construction of new single-family homes rose 10.3% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.220 million units.
Multifamily housing construction, which skidded 24.5% last month, climbed 4.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 305,000 units in February.
Permits, considered a less volatile measure of housing construction activity, were issued at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.532 million units in February, down 2.5% for the month and 28.6% from a year earlier.
“Unusually good weather in the South and West enabled builders to begin construction of many single-family homes that had been sold and permitted earlier,” said NAHB President Brian Catalde. “At the same time, unusually bad weather held down building activity in the Northeast and Midwest.”
“Shifting weather conditions have created a lot of month-to-month volatility in both housing starts and building permits during recent months,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. “The trend lines are still slightly downward, although we probably are now approaching a bottom in the market.”
“NAHB’s forecast shows a gradual increase in housing starts beginning in the second quarter of this year,” Seiders added, “although we expect that total to be down about 17% from 2006.”
Regionally, construction of new homes and apartments was up 18.0% in the South and 26.4% in the West but down 14.4% in the Midwest and 29.7% in the Northeast. However, housing construction in February was substantially below the pace of a year earlier in all four regions of the country.
Permits, considered a less volatile measure of housing construction activity, were issued at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.532 million units in February, down 2.5% for the month and 28.6% from a year earlier.
The issuance of single-family permits declined 3.1% to an annual rate of 1.089 million units during February, 32.9% below February 2006. Multifamily permits dropped 0.9% to 443,000 units, 15.3% below their year-earlier rate.
 Is the Housing Correction Over? Attend Construction Forecast Conference on April 26
Will housing demand outweigh affordability hurdles, inventory overhangs and the retreat of investors? Where are home prices headed?
Get the answers to these and other questions at the Construction Forecast Conference — Spring 2007 on April 26 in Washington, D.C.
Panels of nationally recognized experts will discuss economic trends, government policies, developments in the housing industry and the results from NAHB's recent surveys at the day-long conference.
For more information and to register, click here.
Can't Attend in Person? Webcast of Conference Also Available
The conference is also available via Webcast. For Webcast information, visit www.nahb.org/cfcwebcast.
 Want to Know Your State’s Starts Forecast for 2008?
Find out in HousingEconomic.com’s State Starts Forecast (sample). The starts forecast includes downloadable Excel tables of total, single-family and multifamily starts by region and state.
To learn more, visit www.housingeconomics.com.
 NAHB Kit Gives Builders Back-to-Basics Tips in Cooling Market
With the current cooling of the nation’s housing market expected to persist into the middle of the year, NAHB has developed a comprehensive online toolkit geared to providing association members with information that will help them prosper in today’s changing business environment.
To access the “Back to Basics” toolkit, you must be an NAHB member and have a login to www.nahb.org. To create a login, go to www.nahb.org/login or click on the log-in button on the main menu bar.
For assistance, call the NAHB Member Service Center at 800-368-5242.
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