US home building surged in February

CNN  — 

US home building jumped higher in February, turning around after five consecutive months of falling even as mortgage rates were climbing last month.

Housing starts, a measure of new home construction, rose by 9.8% in February from January. But that’s still down 18.4% from a year ago, according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau. Starts in January rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.450 million, up from the revised January estimate of 1.321 million.

Housing starts had big drops in May and July last year, when spiking mortgage rates pushed many prospective home buyers to the sidelines. Starts bounced back slightly in August, but have been falling since then.

Single‐family housing starts in February were up 1.1% from the revised January figure at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 830,000.

As mortgage rates trended lower from November through January, builders have begun to feel more optimistic that conditions may improve in 2023. But recent strong economic data and uncertainty in the banking sector mean that inflation concerns remain, along with volatile mortgage rates.

Building permits, which track the number of new housing units granted permits, jumped up in February for the second month in a row, rising 13.8% from the revised January rate, and were down 17.9% from a year ago. In February building permits were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.524 million.

This is a developing story and will be updated.