Highlights

Housing starts dropped 5.8% in March from 694,000 in February to 654,000. Starts are now down 8.4% from the 714,000 level reached in January. The Briefing.com consensus expected starts to increase slightly to 700,000.
In a potential sign that a pickup in starts is around the corner, building permits issued in March reached the highest level since September 2008. The number of permits increased from 715,000 in February to 747,000, easily topping the consensus estimate of 710,000 permits.

Key Factors

The March decline came almost entirely from a 16.9% decline (from 231,000 to 192,000) in the multifamily sector. Multifamily construction had been running hotter than its long-term average for the past few months and the March decline may be a slight retreat back to its mean.
Single-family starts, which are notably stable, fell only 0.2% to 462,000 in March.
Even after the substantial drop in starts over the previous two months, the number of homes under construction has remained on an upward trend, increasing from 444,000 in February to 447,000 in March. Construction levels are now 8.8% above their all-time low of 411,000 homes reached in August 2011.

Housing starts are at extremely low levels, but the outlook is improving. For the first time since the peak of the housing bubble, the number of homes under construction have increased at a steady pace. There is now clear evidence that the housing sector is finally on a steady, upward trend.

Category	APR	MAR	FEB	JAN	DEC
Starts	717K	699K	718K	720K	697K
1 Unit	492K	481K	470K	511K	520K
Multi Units	225K	218K	248K	209K	177K
Permits	715K	769K	707K	684K	701K