Housing Starts Jump 6.8% in May

Housing starts jumped 6.8% in May, led by a gain in single-family homes, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

Starts rose to an annual rate of 914,000 units in May from a revised 856,000 pace in April that was higher than originally reported.

Building permits, an indicator of future construction activity, fell 3.1% to a 974,000 annual rate.

Economists had forecast an annual rate of 950,000 housing starts in May, Bloomberg News reported.

Single-family unit construction rose 1.3% to an annual rate of 622,000 units, the fastest pace in five years, while multifamily unit construction rose 21.6%.