Housing Starts Jump 8.2% in April

New home construction rose 8.2% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.03 million units, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Building of single-family homes continued to weaken, and the growth came primarily from a jump in multifamily units, Bloomberg reported.

Building permits, an indicator of new construction, rose 4.9% to an annual pace of 978,000 rate.

Economists had forecast that housing starts would fall to an annual rate of 939,000 units, Bloomberg reported.