Home Starts Stay Near 1991 Lows

Detroit Free Press (02/21/08); Willis, Bob
According to the U.S. Commerce Department, builders broke ground on 1.012 million units of housing last month. While the tally represented a slight gain of 0.8 percent from December, U.S. home starts stuck close to lows not seen since 1991; and building permits, a gauge of future construction activity, slipped 3 percent to 1.048 million. New single-family projects were down by 5.2 percent, the Commerce report noted, but multifamily building in January jumped 22 percent from the month before. Overall, January housing starts were up 19 percent in the Northeast and 12 percent in the Midwest but fell 3 percent in the South and 6 percent in the West.