Housing Starts Climb in January

Housing starts rose 2.8% in January while building permits fell 4.9%, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

Starts rose to an annual rate of 591,000 units, Commerce said. The level was higher than economists' projections of a 580,000 pace, Bloomberg reported.

Building permits, an indicator of future construction, dropped 4.9% to a 621,000 annual rate, from a 653,000 rate in December. Economists had forecast permits to fall 5.1% to a 620,000-unit rate.

Single-family home starts, which account for about 85% of starts, grew 1.5% to a 484,000 annual rate. Work on multifamily units, which are often more volatile, climbed 9.2% to a 107,000 rate.

Three of the four national regions showed gians in January, led by a 10% increase in the Northeast. The West gained 8.9% and the South saw a 1% increase.