U.S. Housing Starts Unexpectedly Edge Higher in March
by:Tom Moeller
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
- Single-family starts ease while multi-family improves.
- Regional changes remain mixed.
- Building permits rise slightly.
Housing starts rose 0.3% (3.9% y/y) during March to 1.793 million from 1.788 million in February, revised from 1.769 million. It remained the highest level of starts since June 2006. January starts were revised to 1.679 million from 1.657 million. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 1.741 million starts during March.
Starts of single-family units fell 1.7% (-4.4% y/y) last month to 1.200 million after rising to 1.221 million in February. Multi-family housing starts improved 4.6% (26.2% y/y) to 593,000 from 567,000 in February.
By region, housing starts in the Northeast more-than-doubled m/m (77.6% y/y) in March to 293,000. Starts in the West increased 7.7% (13.9% y/y) to 434,000. In the South, housing starts declined 17.2% (-6.4% y/y) to 834,000 units. Starts in the Midwest eased 2.9% (-19.4% y/y) to 232,000 in March.
Building permits rose 0.4% (6.7% y/y) to 1.873 million from 1.865 million in February. Permits to build single-family homes declined 4.8% (-3.9% y/y) in March to 1.147 million units. Permits to build multi-family homes rose 10.0% (29.4% y/y) to 726,000.
The housing starts and permits figures can be found in Haver's USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in the AS1REPNA database.
Tom Moeller
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Prior to joining Haver Analytics in 2000, Mr. Moeller worked as the Economist at Chancellor Capital Management from 1985 to 1999. There, he developed comprehensive economic forecasts and interpreted economic data for equity and fixed income portfolio managers. Also at Chancellor, Mr. Moeller worked as an equity analyst and was responsible for researching and rating companies in the economically sensitive automobile and housing industries for investment in Chancellor’s equity portfolio. Prior to joining Chancellor, Mr. Moeller was an Economist at Citibank from 1979 to 1984. He also analyzed pricing behavior in the metals industry for the Council on Wage and Price Stability in Washington, D.C. In 1999, Mr. Moeller received the award for most accurate forecast from the Forecasters' Club of New York. From 1990 to 1992 he was President of the New York Association for Business Economists. Mr. Moeller earned an M.B.A. in Finance from Fordham University, where he graduated in 1987. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from George Washington University.
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