Total housing starts rose 5.0% (20.3% y/y) during May to 1.350 million units (SAAR) from 1.286 million in April, revised from 1.287 million. It was the highest level of starts since July 2007. A level of 1.305 million starts had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.

Starts of single-family homes improved 3.9% last month (18.3% y/y) to 936,000, following a 2.2% April rise to 901,000. Starts of multi-family units rebounded 7.5% to 414,000 units after a 13.5% decline to 385,000 units.

The rise in starts last month was dominated by the Midwest where housing starts surged by roughly two-thirds both m/m and y/y to 266,000. That followed a 9.9% April decline. Elsewhere around the country housing starts fell. Housing starts in the Northeast were off 15.0% (+20.0% y/y) to 102,000, the lowest level since December. Starts in the West fell 4.1% (+4.8% y/y) to 329,000, the lowest level since September. Starts in the South eased 0.9% (+16.8% y/y) to 653,000 after a 4.6% gain.

Building permits declined 4.6% (+8.0% y/y) to 1.301 million units following a 0.9% April fall. Single-family permits were off 2.2% (+7.7% y/y) to 844,000 after a 1.4% rise. Permits to build multi-family homes fell 8.8% (+8.6% y/y) to 457,000, after declining 4.8%.

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