Housing starts in the U.S. rose 0.8 percent from January to February and are up 27.7 percent on a year-over-year basis as single-family home starts ticked up 0.5 percent (up 31.5 percent year-over-year) and construction of structures with five or more units ticked up 0.7 percent (up 18.8 percent year-over-year).
Single-family housing starts ticked up to 41,600 last month having averaged 87,400 a month since 1959, peaking at 170,400 in May of 2005 and measuring 150,700 that October. Starts for structures with five or more units ticked up to 19,400 last month having averaged 30,100 a month since 1963, peaking at 87,200 in May of 1973 and measuring 54,000 that October.
Total housing starts which measured 62,400 in February have averaged 122,500 a month since 1959, hitting 227,300 in early 2006 and peaking at 249,400 in early 1972.
On a year-over-year basis, permit activity to start construction was up 33.8 percent in February with applications for single-family homes up 25.5 percent, up 54.9 percent for multi-family housing. Adjusted for seasonality, permit activity hit a 946,000 pace, the highest since June 2008.
In the west, starts were up 63.4 percent year-over-year, up 62.5 percent for single-family homes, while permit activity was up 60.0 percent, up 51.6 percent for single-family homes.
∙ New Residential Construction Statistics [doc.gov]
∙ Housing Starts Hit Four Year Seasonal High, Remain Below Average [SocketSite]
I would use fewer data points (a moving average?) to smooth the seasonality of the observations and help this chart better communicate the content.
It mostly looks like a lot of noise.