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Inventory Relief? Housing Starts Top 1 Million

  • April 16th 2013

by Shilpi Paul

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Inventory Relief? Housing Starts Top 1 Million: Figure 1

Housing starts rose to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 1.036 million in March, according to the Commerce Department’s monthly residential construction report published on Tuesday. The seven-figure number marked the highest level for starts in five years.

While single-family housing starts fell between February and March, multi-unit construction (buildings with five units or more) shot up to 392,000, a 27 percent month-over-month increase. According to Trulia’s Jed Kolko, 38 percent of housing starts in March were in multi-unit buildings (the normal proportion is around 20%), which means that there will be a good deal of apartments and condos hitting the market in about a year.

While the increase in multi-family starts accounts for both rental and for-sale units, it will certainly help the local and national housing markets, both of which have been plagued by a record-low inventory of homes on the market.

See other articles related to: commerce department, housing starts

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/construction_of_new_homes_at_highest_level_in_5_years/6938.

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