Housing Starts Rise Another 3% Monthly, Over 6% Annually on Single-Family Growth

Privately-owned housing starts in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,288,000. This is 3% above the revised January estimate of 1,251,000 and is 6.2% above the Feb. 2016 rate of 1,213,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Single-family housing starts in February were at a rate of 872,000, 6.5% above the revised January figure of 819,000.

“The growth in the single-family arena is very encouraging, but may be partly attributable to unusually warm weather conditions throughout most of the country,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “The modest drop in multi-family starts is in line with our forecast, which calls for this sector to continue to stabilize in 2017.”