Housing Starts Climb

Total April housing starts were up 5.8% compared to March at a seasonally adjusted rate of 672,000 and up 40.9% compared with April 2009�s rate of 477,000, according to the Commerce Department�s monthly residential construction report. However, the overall housing start rate is deceiving because starts of multifamily projects with five or more units actually fell 23.6% in April compared with March. Single-family starts were up 10.2% month over month, to a seasonally adjusted level of 593,000. On an annual basis, April's single-family starts were up 53.6% and multifamily starts for projects of five or more units were down 15%. Starts in the Northeast and Midwest carried the bulk of the sequential monthly increase, up 23.9% and 16.7%, respectively. The South also saw a 7% boost; however, starts were down 13.3% in the West.

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