Housing Starts Up in May

The nation’s builders boosted their production in May, starting new housing units at an annualized rate of 532,000, up 17.2% from the revised estimate of 454,000 in April.

The data release, a monthly report from the Census Bureau, also revealed that building permits jumped by 4% to a rate of 518,000 from 498,000 in April.

As we reported to you earlier in another post, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that existing home sales ticked up 2.9% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.68 million units compared to the revised rate of 4.55 million in March.

Much of the rise in starts during May can be attributed to the 61.7% spike in multi-family housing starts. That compared with a nearly 50% drop in multi-family starts during April. Also noteworthy about the May report was the rise in single-family starts, which posted the biggest jump since January 2006 at 401,000 from 373,000.

Every region gained housing starts in May. The Northeast was up 2%, the Midwest 11.1%, the South 16.8% and in the West a whopping 28.6%. Permits grew 5.7% in the Northeast, 8.9% in the Midwest, 2.3% in the South and 3.8% in the West.

This news should serve as more warning to those sitting on the sidelines just waiting for a bottom… you may already be too late to the “bottom dance.”