Housing starts in the U.S. showed a notable increase in the month of March, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, although starts still came in well below economist estimates.
The report showed that housing starts climbed 2.8 percent to an annual rate of 946,000 in March from the revised February estimate of 920,000.
Economists had been expecting housing starts to surge up to an annual rate of 970,000 from the 907,000 originally reported for the previous month.
The increase in housing starts reflected growth in single-family starts, which jumped 6.0 percent to a rate of 635,000 in March from the revised February figure of 599,000.
On the other hand, the report said multi-family starts dipped 3.1 percent to a rate of 311,000 in March from 321,000 in the previous month.
The Commerce Department noted that housing starts in the Midwest surged up 65.5 percent to a rate of 144,000, while starts in the Northeast also jumped 30.7 percent to 115,000.
Meanwhile, housing starts in the larger South and the West regions dropped by 9.1 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively.
The report also showed that building permits, an indicator of future housing demand, fell 2.4 percent to an annual rate of 990,000 in March from the revised February rate of 1.014 million.
Building permits had been expected to show a more modest decrease to a rate of 1.010 million from the 1.018 million originally reported for the previous month.
While single-family authorizations edged up by 0.5 percent to a rate of 592,000, multi-family permits dropped 6.4 percent to a rate of 398,000.
The Commerce Department said building permits in the Northeast and the Midwest surged up by 33.3 percent and 26.0 percent, respectively, while permits in the South tumbled by 17.1 percent and permits in the West were unchanged.
Peter Boockvar, managing director at the Lindsey Group, said, "Bottom line, there was a lot of noise over the past 3 months but March didn't bring much of a snapback."
Compared to the same month a year ago, housing starts were down by 5.9 percent, while building permits were up by 11.2 percent.
On Tuesday, the National Association of Home Builders released a separate report showing that homebuilder confidence has improved by less than expected in April.
The report showed that the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index edged up to 47 in April from a downwardly revised 46 in March, while economists had expected the index to climb to 49.
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Forex News
April 24, 2026 15:15 ET Economics news flow was relatively light this week even as the conflict in the Middle East continued, raising concerns for policymakers. In the U.S., spending data, initial jobless claims and pending home sales were the highlights. Business confidence in the biggest euro area economy was in focus in Europe. Inflation data from Japan gained attention in Asia.