U.S. Housing Starts Remain Unchanged in February

WASHINGTON – U.S. housing starts held steady in February, decreasing 0.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 907,000 units, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau.

U.S. Housing Starts Remain Unchanged in FebruaryRegionally, shared housing starts activity was varied in February, showing growth in the Midwest of 34.5 percent and 7.3 percent in the South. The Northeast posted declines of 37.5 percent and the West dropped 5.5 percent.

"While housing construction is in a recent lull due to unusual weather conditions, we expect to see an improvement as the winter weather pattern subsides and builders prepare for the spring selling season," said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "Competitive mortgage rates, affordable home prices and an improving economy all point to a continuing, gradual strengthening of housing activity through the rest of the year. Moreover, building permits, which are less dependent on weather and are a harbinger of future building activity, rose above 1 million units in February."

Single-family housing construction rose 0.3 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 583,000 units while multifamily starts fell 2.5 percent lower to a 312,000-unit pace.

In February, issuance of new building permits rose 7.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.02 units. In addition, single-family permits slid 1.8 percent to 588,000 units and multifamily permits jumped 27.6 percent to 407,000 units. Overall permits grew 6.3 percent in the Northeast, 9.9 percent in the South and 17.9 percent in the West but dropped 11.8 percent in the Midwest.

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