Housing Starts

By Jim Perskie Another day, another housing report battered by the economic shutdown driven by the coronavirus pandemic. Residential housing starts in the United States in April dropped 30.2 percent from March and were 29.7 percent below April 19, according to a report released Tuesday by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Single-family housing starts were 25.4 percent below March. Privately-owned housing starts in April were at a seasonally adjusted rate of 891,000, significantly below the 1.28 million in March. “This drop in new home construction is not surprising since most states were under stay-at-home orders in April, which included home builders,” said Bill Banfield, vice president of Capital Markets at Quicken Loans. “While it…

Another day, another clear sign that the housing market is taking a beating. Single‐family housing starts in March were at a rate of 856,000 – 17.5 percent below the revised February figure of 1,037,000, according to a monthly report released Thursday the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development. “Housing has been deemed an essential business in most of the nation, and in the few states where the governors have not acted, we urge them to deem construction as essential,” said Dean Mon, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). “Housing can help lead an eventual rebound, as it has done in previous recessions.” The report also found: Total housing starts decreased 22.3 percent in…