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Multifamily Starts Rise, But House Market Still Down03-21-08 | News

Multifamily Starts Rise, But House Market Still Down

Single family housing starts dropped 6.7 percent in February as the housing market continues to reel from last summer?EUR??,,????'???s subprime crisis. Multifamily projects increased, which helped to temper the overall February decline in housing starts.

Single-family housing posted a 6.7 percent decline In February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 707,000 units, according to figures released by the Commerce Department. On a positive note, production in the multifamily sector registered a 14.4 percent gain to 358,000 units, limiting the decline in total housing starts to a rate of 1.065 million units ?EUR??,,????'??? 0.6 percent below the revised January pace.

Regionally, housing starts were unchanged for the month in the Midwest, up nearly four percent in the South and up 5.1 percent in the West, while the Northeast posted a 27.7 percent decline that offset a large boost in the previous month. However, every region was down on a quarterly basis in February.

Permit issuance, which can be an indicator of future building activity, declined 7.8 percent overall in the month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 978,000 units, with a 6.2 percent decline registered in the single-family sector to 639,000 units and a 10.8 percent decline on the multifamily side to 339,000 units.

Source: Commerce Department