Housing Starts Soar 14.6% in June

Housing starts jumped 14.6% in June, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

Starts increased to an annual rate of 629,000 units from a revised rate of 549,000 starts in May, Commerce said.

The June level, which was the fastest pace in five months, was higher than economists’ projections of a 575,000 annual rate, Bloomberg reported.

Building permits, an indicator of future construction, climbed 2.5% to 624,000. They were projected to drop 2.3%, Bloomberg said.

Single-family home starts, which account for about 85% of the total, rose 9.4% to a 453,000 rate for the largest monthly gain since June 2009. Work on multifamily units, which is often more volatile, leaped 30% to a 176,000 rate.

Starts climbed in all four national regions, paced by a 35 percent surge in the Northeast and a 25 percent jump in the Midwest.