Housing starts, permits up in March

After a steep drop in February, housing starts bounced back in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 549,000 units — a rise of 7.2 percent over February numbers, according to data from the U.S. Commerce Dept. Building permits were up even higher: 11.2 percent above February to 594,000 annual units.

Both the single-family and multi-family sectors saw gains in starts and permits last month. Privately-owned single-family housing starts in March were at a rate of 422,000, 7.7 percent above the revised February figure of 392,000. The March rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 117,000.

Privately-owned single-family permit authorizations in March were at a rate of 405,000, 5.7 percent above the revised February figure of 383,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 173,000 in March.

Read the full release at: http://www.census.gov/pub/const/newresconst.pdf