The U.S. housing market continued to roll along as both housing starts and building permits beat expectations for September, according to data released by the Obama administration.
Housing starts picked up last month at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.02 million, or a 6.3 percent jump from August’s 957,000. And when compared to September 2013, the gap is even wider, up 17.8 percent from 863,000 housing starts, according to the report from the Commerce Department.
Meanwhile, building permits for the month also rose, by 1.5 percent to an annualized rate of 1.02 million from last month’s revised level of 1.003 million.
Builders were also finishing what they started, as housing completions came in at a seasonally adjusted rate of 999,000, a gain of 8 percent over August’s estimate of 920,000 and 31.3 percent over the September 2013 figure of 716,000.
