Permits Up, Starts "Readjust"
While builder confidence is increasing based on future sales, and permits increased 11.8% over April, May's housing starts dropped 11.1%. The drop was broad based, falling 5.4% in single-family to an annual rate of 680,000 and multifamily falling 20.2% to 356,000, reported David Crowe, NAHB Chief Economist.
You can find his post and a graph showing the overall positive trendline by clicking here. It's worth noting that April's numbers jumped, likely as a result of weather, rising mortgage rates and, perhaps, the overall sluggish economy. May's housing starts puts the numbers at 1.036 million units on a seasonally-adjusted annual rate.
When viewed from a quarterly average, Crowe noted, the first two months of the second quarter were better than the first quarter for both single- and multifamily starts: single-family up 9% and multifamily up 20%.
PRO CONTRACTOR RENTALS MAGAZINE
Pro Contractor Rentals provides information of value to rental centers who focus time, resources and attention on meeting the demands of construction contractors and other equipment rental customers.
