Housing starts rose in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.467 million, up 2.3 percent from the previous month, according to figures released today (pdf) by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The slight uptick is no reason for optimism, according to a statement from David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders. “The small overall increase in total housing starts does not signal the end of the housing downswing,” he says. “All of the gain occurred on the multifamily side, which is subject to sizeable month-to-month volatility, and single-family starts actually registered a slight decline following downward revisions to both April and May.”
The Commerce Department’s release also notes that building permits dropped 7.5 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.406 million units – down 25.2 percent from a year earlier.