Housing Starts Jump 3.5% in May

Starts increased to an annual rate of 560,000 units from 523,000 starts in April, Commerce said.

The May level was lower than economists’ projections of a 545,000 annual rate, Bloomberg reported.

Building permits, an indicator of future construction, climbed 8.7% to 612,000. They were projected to drop 1.1%, Bloomberg said.

Single-family home starts, which account for about 85% of the total, increased 3.7% to a 419,000 rate. Work on multifamily units, which is often more volatile, plunged 2.9% to a 141,000 rate.

Starts climbed in two of four national regions, led by an 18% jump in the West, 1.5% in the South while starts fell 4.1% in the Midwest and 3.3% in the Northeast.