Housing Starts increased to 1.172 Million Annual Rate in April

From the Census Bureau: Permits, Starts and Completions

Housing Starts:
Privately-owned housing starts in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,172,000. This is 6.6 percent above the revised March estimate of 1,099,000, but is 1.7 percent below the April 2015 rate of 1,192,000.

Single-family housing starts in April were at a rate of 778,000; this is 3.3 percent above the revised March figure of 753,000. The April rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 373,000.

Building Permits:
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,116,000. This is 3.6 percent above the revised March rate of 1,077,000, but is 5.3 percent below the April 2015 estimate of

Single-family authorizations in April were at a rate of 736,000; this is 1.5 percent above the revised March figure of 725,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 348,000 in April.
emphasis added

Click on graph for larger image.

The first graph shows single and multi-family housing starts for the last several years.

Multi-family starts (red, 2+ units) increased in April compared to March.  Multi-family starts are down 12% year-over-year.

Single-family starts (blue) increased in April, and are up 4% year-over-year.

The second graph shows total and single unit starts since 1968.

 The second graph shows the huge collapse following the housing bubble, and then – after moving sideways for a couple of years – housing is now recovering (but still historically low),

Total housing starts in April were above expectations, and combined starts for February and March were revised up.  I’ll have more later …