Housing starts in the U.S. slipped 4.8 percent from April to May, once again driven by a slowdown in the multi-family housing sector as starts for structures with five (5) or more units fell 24.2 percent from April, but total starts remain up 28.5 percent year-over-year.
On a year-over-year basis, permit activity to start construction was up 25.0 percent in May with applications for multi-family housing up 39.3 percent, up 19.9 percent for single-family homes.
In the west, starts were up 27.5 percent year-over-year, up 37.0 percent for single-family homes while permit activity was up 30.7 percent, up 32.5 percent for single-family homes.
New Residential Construction: May 2012 [doc.gov]

4 thoughts on “Housing Starts Slip From April To May But Up 28.5% Year-Over-Year”
  1. Does anyone know if SFH housing starts are up or down as against the boom years? Up YoY is great, but the real Q is whether we are going back to the good times of 2006-08

  2. Thanks, BernalDweller. Looks like we still have a long way to go to get back to the normal SFH housing starts rate, much less the rates during the heyday. At least the delta is positive

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *