Housing starts increase on apartments

Housing construction picked up pace last month, boosted mainly by an increase in multifamily construction.

Starts increased 6.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.017 million homes, the third time this year they have eclipsed the million mark, the Commerce Department said Friday.

{mosads}Housing starts are 17.8 percent above the September 2013 rate of 863,000.

“September’s uptick reveals that last month’s dip in production was more of an anomaly than a market reversal,” said David Crowe, NAHB’s chief economist. “I expect we will see a continued recovery as job creation grows and consumers gain more confidence in the housing market.”

Apartment construction, which can make big swings each month, increased 18.5 percent after falling sharply in August.

“These numbers show starts returning to levels we saw earlier this summer, where they hovered around 1 million units,” said NAHB Chairman Kevin Kelly, a homebuilder and developer from Wilmington, Del.

“We are hopeful this pattern of modest growth will continue as we close out the year.”

Single-family housing starts rose 1.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 646,000 units in August.

Combined housing starts increased across all regions of the country.

The Northeast, Midwest, South and West posted gains of 5.3 percent, 3.5 percent, 4.2 percent and 13.9 percent, respectively.

Applications for building permits, an indicator of future activity, increased 1.5 percent to an annual rate of 1.018 million.

Multifamily permits rose 4.8 percent to 394,000 units, while single-family permits decreased 0.5 percent to 624,000 units.

Regionally, the Northeast, Midwest and West registered overall permit increases of 12.3 percent, 8.2 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively.

The South posted a 4.7 percent loss.