February Housing Starts Fall 11 Percent

March 21, 2003
Privately-owned housing starts in February were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.62 million, an 11 percent decrease from the revised January estimate

Privately-owned housing starts in February were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.62 million, an 11 percent decrease from the revised January estimate of 1.82 million and a 9.3 percent decrease from the February 2002 rate of 1.79 million.

Single-family housing starts in February 2003 were at a rate of 1.30 million, 13.7 percent below the January figure of 1.5 million. The February estimate for units in buildings with five or more units was 297,000 units. An estimated 1.70 million total housing units were started in 2002, a 6.4 percent increase over the 2001 figure of 1.60 million.

Building permits, which can be an indication of future building activity, held firm with a fourth-tenths of a percent gain to a very solid 1.79 million-unit rate in February. Single-family permits fell 6.8 percent to a 1.32 million-unit rate, which is exactly on pace with the 1.32 million single-family permits issued in 2002. Meanwhile, multifamily permits rebounded strongly from a big dip in the previous month for a 28 percent gain in February to 471,000 units.