Housing Starts Rise 7.2% in March

Housing starts rose 7.2% in March following a big drop in February, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

Starts improved to an annual rate of 549,000 units from a revised 512,000 starts in February that was larger than originally reported, Commerce said.

February’s originally reported 22.5% drop, revised upward to a 19% decline, had been the biggest drop in housing starts since 1984.

The March level was higher than economists’ projections of a 520,000 annual rate, Bloomberg reported.

Building permits, an indicator of future construction, rose 11% to a 594,000 annual rate, also more than forecast.

Single-family home starts, which account for about 85% of the total, increased 7.7% to a 422,000 rate. Work on multifamily units, which is often more volatile, grew 5.8% to a 127,000 rate.

Starts climbed in three of four national regions, with the exception of the South.