By Jann Swanson | Mortgage News Daily
Residential construction performed an abrupt and unexpected about face in October. Permits, housing starts, and completions all improved on a month-over-month basis and, except for completions, they were not token increases. The gains however did all come from the multifamily sector, single-family activity remained weak.
Permits for privately owned housing units were issued during the month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,328,000, a 5.0 percent jump from October. This put the rate above water relative to a year earlier, up 0.4 percent. The original 1,263,000 permits reported for October were revised up to 1,265,000.
Analysts polled by Econoday had not expected much from either permits or starts. Their consensus estimate for the former was 1,257,000 units with a range of 1,250,000 to 1,275,000.
