Housing construction shows broad growth in February

Today’s New Residential Construction Report showed broad improvement in February with solid increases for both single family permits and starts as well as improvement for total housing starts. 

Single family housing permits, the most leading of indicators, rose 2.7% from January to 600K single family units (SAAR), and increased 25.52% above the level seen in February 2012 but still remained an astonishing 66.63% below the peak in September 2005. 

Single family housing starts increased 0.5% from December to 618K units (SAAR), and rose 31.49% above the level seen in February 2012 but still remained 66.10% below the peak set in early 2006.