April Housing Starts Rebound
Housing starts shook off a rough March and posted strong results in April, HUD and the Census Bureau reported yesterday.
The report said privately owned housing starts in April rose to 1.172 million, seasonally adjusted, a 6.6 percent increase from March’s revised estimate (1.099 million), but still 1.7 percent below a year ago (1.192 million). Single-family housing starts in April were came in at 778,000; up by 3.3 percent from March’s revised 753,000. The April rate for units in buildings with five units or more rose by 10.7 percent to 373,000 units from 337,000 units in March but remained 13 percent below a year ago.
Regionally, performance was mixed. In the South, housing starts increased by 14.1 percent to 616,000 units from 540,000 in March and improved by 18.2 percent from a year ago. In the West, starts declined by 10.0 percent to 235,000 units from 261,000 in March and fell by nearly 25 percent from a year ago. In the Midwest, starts rose by 22.2 percent in April to 187,000 from 153,000 in March and improved by 11.3 percent from a year ago, while in the Northeast, starts fell by 1.8 percent to 134,000 units from 145,000 units in March and fell by nearly 30 percent from a year ago.
Mark Vitner, senior economist with Wells Fargo Securities, Charlotte, N.C., said housing starts recovered much of March’s decline, with new home building providing solid momentum.
“While the monthly starts numbers can be volatile, home building has clearly had a solid start to 2016,” Vitner said. “The composition of housing starts is clearly moving towards a greater emphasis on single-family homes.”
Vitner added with May and June representing the two most important months for housing starts, “we remain optimistic about home building in 2016 and the spring selling season.”
The report said privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in April rose by 3.6 percent to 1.12 million from March’s revised 1.077 million, but was 5.3 percent below a year ago. Single-family authorizations in April rose by 1.5 percent to 736,000 from March’s revised 725,000; authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more increased by 9.4 percent to 348,000 in April from March’s revised 314,000.
Privately owned housing completions in April fell by 11 percent to 933,000 from March’s revised 1.048 million and fell by 7.4 percent from a year ago. Single-family housing completions in April came in at 691,000 down by 3.6 percent from March’s revised 717,000. The April rate for units in buildings with five units or more fell to 232,000, more than 27 percent below March’s revised 321,000 units.
