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Housing starts dropped 3.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted
annual rate of 1.287 million units in April, the Commerce
Department said on Wednesday. The decline reversed March's rise.
Data for March was revised to show starts rising to a 1.336
million-unit rate instead of the previously reported 1.319
million-unit pace. Building permits fell 1.8 percent to a rate
of 1.352 million units last month.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts
decreasing to a pace of 1.310 million units last month and
permits declining to a 1.350 million-unit rate. Starts fell in
the Northeast, West and Midwest, but rose in the South.
U.S. financial markets were little moved by the data.
Single-family homebuilding, which accounts for the largest share
of the housing market, edged up 0.1 percent to a rate of 894,000
units last month. Single-family homebuilding has lost momentum
since setting a 948,000-unit pace last November, which was the
strongest in more than 10 years.
Last month's gain in single-family starts was outpaced by an
11.3 percent decline in groundbreaking activity on multi-family
housing units. Residential construction has been hamstrung by
rising prices for building materials and shortages of land and
skilled workers.
While a survey on Tuesday showed confidence among single-family
homebuilders perked up in May, builders complained that "the
record-high cost of lumber is hurting builders' bottom lines and
making it more difficult to produce competitively priced houses
for newcomers to the market."
The Trump administration in April last year imposed anti-subsidy
duties on imports of Canadian softwood lumber. These constraints
have left builders unable to plug an acute shortage of houses on
the market, restraining home sales growth.
Investment in homebuilding was flat in the first quarter after
growing at a 12.8 percent annualized rate in the
October-December quarter.
Last month, permits for the construction of single-family homes
rose 0.9 percent to a rate of 859,000 units in April. Permits
for multi-family units fell 6.3 percent to a 493,000 unit-pace.
The number of single-family units completed fell 4.0 percent in
April. Single-family units under construction increased 1.0
percent to the highest level since June 2008.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
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