Housing Starts Jump 7% in March

Housing starts jumped 7% in March to the highest level in almost five years, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

The increase to an annual rate of 1.04 million units was well above analysts’ forecasts of a 930,000 rate, Bloomberg News reported. It was the highest level since June 2008.

It followed a revised 968,000 rate in February that was bigger than first reported.

Building permits, an indicator of future construction activity, fell 3.9% to 902,000, lower than forecast, Bloomberg said.

The overall increase was led by a 31% surge in multifamily-unit construction, which rose to 417,000 units, the highest level in more than seven years.

Single-family unit construction slipped 4.8% to an annual rate of 619,000 units.