The nation’s housing market continues to fire on all cylinders, according to May housing starts figures reported by the U.S. Commerce Department.
“While the overall starts number was essentially flat, both single-family starts and building permits chalked up significant gains last month,” said Bobby Rayburn, a home and apartment builder from Jackson, Miss., and president of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
“So far in this year’s second quarter, average new-home production is running at or above par with the very solid first quarter, and we see no signs of any systematic weakening in any of the four regions,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. “As anticipated, the effects of the strengthening economy and job market, along with attractive increases in house values, evidently are overriding the higher interest-rate structure as an influence on home buyers.”
Overall housing starts hit a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.97 million units in May, which was down less than 1 percent from April’s upwardly revised 1.98 million-unit pace. The decline was entirely on the multifamily side, where a nearly 10 percent dip was recorded to a 327,000-unit rate, but strong permit issuance in that sector indicates an impending bounce-back. Single-family housing starts rose 1.4 percent in the month to a historically healthy seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.64 million units.