Housing starts climbed 9.8% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.45 million units, according to Reuters.
Applications for building permits, a good indication of future activity, rose 13.8% to 1.524 million units in February.
Single-family housing starts rose 1.1% to a rate of 830,000 units, and multifamily starts grew 24.1% to a rate of 608,000 units. Building permits for single-family homes climbed 7.6% to a rate of 777,000 units, and permits for multifamily homes rose 24.3% to a rate of 700,000.
The number of houses approved for construction that are yet to be started was unchanged at 294,000 units.