Overall housing starts continued their downward trend in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.42 million, a 0.8% fall from February and a 17.2% drop compared with March 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Housing permits also plunged 8.8% from February and 24.8% compared with March 2022.
Single-family housing starts, however, showed a 2.7% bump from February, and single-family permits climbed 4.1%.
“Single-family production showed signs of a gradual upturn in March as stabilizing mortgage rates and limited existing inventory helped to offset stubbornly high construction costs, building labor shortages and tightening credit conditions,” the National Association of Home Builders stated. Builder confidence also crept up one point in April.
“With builder sentiment climbing for four consecutive months and single-family starts continuing to move gradually higher from low levels since the beginning of the year, this indicates that a turning point for single-family construction will occur later this year after declines in 2022,” added NAHB Chair Alicia Huey.
Regionally, month-over-month, housing starts fell 23.6% in the Midwest and 28.1% in the West. Housing starts grew 72.4% in the Northeast and 6.8% in the South.
