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March Home Construction Gains Little Ground04-28-14 | News
March Home Construction
Gains Little Ground





Construction permits for and completions of new homes declined from February to March, according to a recent Census Bureau report, but housing starts made slight gains. Residential construction continues to struggle following a harsh winter, and economists are expecting a bounce-back as the spring continues.
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New home construction reached the fastest pace in three months in March, led by growth in single-family homes, but fewer permits were issued and fewer homes were completed than in February.

Construction starts rose 2.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 946,000 last month, as they rebounded from a tough winter, according to a U.S. Commerce Department report released April 16. The increase arrived concurrently with an upward revision of February's annual starts rate, which reached 920,000 units.

Single-family starts were at a rate of 635,000, up 6.0 percent month over month and starts in multifamily units were at a rate of 292,000 compared to 311,000 in February. Despite March's gain, the starts rate was down 5.9 percent from the year-earlier period, the largest year-over-year contraction since April 2011. Housing starts reached a 1.005 million-unit rate in March 2013.

Permits for future construction also fell 2.4 percent in March to an annual rate of 990,000, led by a decline in multi-unit permits. Permits for single-family houses were issued at a rate of 592,000, 0.5 percent above the February estimate of 589,000, while permits for construction of multi-unit buildings were at a 370,000-unit rate, down from 402,000 in February.








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