April Housing Starts, Building Permits Slip

This story was originally published in Builder.

Housing starts in April dropped 3.7 percent from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,287,000 but remained 10.5 percent ahead of the same month a year earlier, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

Single-family housing starts in April were at a rate of 894,000, essentially flat with the revised March figure of 893,000.

Building permits in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,352,000, 1.8 percent below the revised March rate of 1,377,000 but 7.7 percent above the April 2017 rate of 1,255,000. Single-family authorizations in April were at a rate of 859,000, 0.9 percent above the revised March figure of 851,000.

Housing completions in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,257,000, 2.8 percent above the revised March estimate of 1,223,000 and 14.8 percent above the April 2017 rate of 1,095,000. Single-family housing completions in April were at a rate of 820,000, 4.0 percent below the revised March rate of 854,000.

“On a month-to-month basis the residential construction market cooled, with housing starts coming in at 1.29 million, a 4 percent national decline," said Freddie Mac Chief Economist Sam Khater. "The drop was broad based, as construction slowed in three out of the four regions in the U.S. The April decline was also driven by weakness in multifamily, which experienced a 13 percent drop in starts relative to March. Single-family essentially remained flat."

Khater continued: "The weakest region was the Midwest, where April starts fell 16 percent from March. The only region that increased on a month-to-month basis was the South, where housing starts increased 6 percent. On an April year-to-date basis, the supply-starved West region was by far the most vibrant growing construction region, with a 28 percent increase in construction.”