Housing Starts Down, Building Permits Up
The housing construction market turned in both good news and bad news today as housing starts for March came in below earlier estimates while building permits exceeded expectations, the federal government said.
The data indicate rising construction activity in the months ahead. That helped ignite a rally this morning in U.S. stock markets, with the three major indices up about 1 percent in the first hour of trading.
The government reported privately-owned housing starts last month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 654,000, 5.8 percent below the revised February estimate of 694,000, but 10.3 percent above the March 2011 rate of 593,000.
Meanwhile, building permits rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 747,000. That's 4.5 percent better than the February rate of 715,000 and 30.1 percent higher than the March 2011 figure of 574,000.
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