Last month, housing starts fell 4.8% to 708,000. The figure disappointed expectations for 725,000 starts. However, the picture for home building activity may have nevertheless brightened. The April level of starts was revised up to 744,000 from 717,000 and the Q2 average so far of 726,000 was 1.5% higher than Q1 and the highest level of the economic recovery.

Starts of single-family homes rose 3.2% (26.2% y/y) to 516,000 from an upwardly revised 500,000. Starts of multi-family homes fell by nearly one quarter month-to-month but were up one-third y/y. The performance amongst regions was mixed with only the West showing a m/m improvement

Building permits jumped 7.9% (25.0% y/y) to the highest level of the recovery. Single-family permits rose 4.0% (19.9% y/y) while multi-family permits increased 15.3% (34.9% y/y).

The housing starts figures can be found in Haver's USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in the AS1REPNA database.