Housing starts rose 11.2% to a rate of 1.501 million units in February after falling in January, according to Reuters. Economists had expected starts to fall to a rate of 1.38 million units.
Applications for building permits, a good indication of future activity, fell 1.2% to 1.456 million units in February.
Single-family housing starts rose 11.4% to a rate of 1.108 million units. Multifamily starts climbed 12.1% to a rate of 370,000 units. Building permits for single-family homes fell 0.2% to a rate of 992,000 units, and permits for multifamily homes fell 4.3% to a rate of 404,000 units.
The completions rate for the single-family housing segment grew 7.1% to 1.066 million.
