Builders ramped up home construction in the States for the third-straight month in April, a sign the industry sees growth ahead after a weak winter.
U.S. housing starts rose 13.2% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.07 million, the U.S. Commerce Department said Friday. The increase was fueled by a by a big jump in multi-family homes. Construction of single-family homes was up only 0.8%.
The figures for overall housing starts were the strongest in five months and show that a crucial piece of the economy is improving after taking a dip over the winter.
Compared with a year earlier, housing starts were up 26.4%. New applications for building permits, a bellwether of future construction, grew 8% in April from the prior month to a pace of 1.08 million.
The results were better than expected. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had projected starts would rise 3.1% to a pace of 975,000 in March and expected permits would grow to a pace of 1.01 million.
The pace of construction for March was revised lower, showing a 2% gain from the previous month, compared with an initially reported 2.8% increase.
The results signal that builders foresee improved prospects after coping with a soft market so far this year. Sales of newly built homes fell 14.5% in March to the lowest level since last July, after stormy winter weather slowed down construction.
