Residential construction hits highest rate in years

Residential construction hit its highest level in years last month, blowing past analysts’ expectations

Residential construction hit its highest level in years last month, blowing past analysts’ expectations.

Permits for residential construction hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,143,000 units, according to data from the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That’s up 10.1% from March’s pace of 1,038,000 units, and well above analysts’ forecast of 1.06 million units. It’s also an increase of 6.4% from April of 2014 and the highest rate since 2007.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, a total of 105,000 permits were issued in April, compared to just 91,300 in March.
Housing starts also spiked, rising nationally by 20.2% from March to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1,135,000 and blowing past analysts’ projections of 1.02 million. Single-family construction started on 733,000 units, up 16.7% from March. Construction was authorized for 444,000 multifamily buildings as well, a 20% spike over March.

Housing completions were up as well, finishing April at a seasonally adjusted rate of 986,000. That’s a 20.4% jump from March’s rate of 819,000 and a 19.4% jump from April of 2014.

Single-family homes were completed at a rate of 688,000 units, 14.5% higher than March’s rate and 15.2% higher than April of 2014. About 288,000 multifamily units were completed.