WASHINGTON — U.S. builders started work on more homes and apartments last month and requested more permits to build single-family homes. The increases suggest the battered housing market is healing.
The Commerce Department said that builders broke ground in April at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 717,000 homes. That’s a 2.6 percent increase from an upwardly revised March figure and near January’s three-year high of 720,000. Construction rose for both single-family homes and apartments.
Building permits, a gauge of future construction, fell last month from a 3-1/2 year high to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 715,000. But that was because of a 23 percent drop in the volatile apartment category. Permits for single-family homes rose almost 2 percent. read more »