Steel Markets
April 17, 2017
Housing Starts Fall in March but Permits Rise
Written by Sandy Williams
Housing starts fell 6.8 percent in March, dropping further than expected. The rate was the biggest decline in three years but still 9.2 percent higher than the rate in March 2016. According to the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,215,000.
Single family housing starts fell 6.2 percent while construction starts for buildings with five units or more fell 6.1 percent. Declines were heaviest in the Midwest with total starts down 16.2 percent and single family housing plummeting 35.0 percent. The Northeast was the only region to see total starts increase with a jump of 12.9 percent entirely from multi-family housing.
