Hot Houses

While housing starts jumped an impressive 20% in April compared to March and permits bounced 10%, hold the applause. March was an unexpectedly lousy month, and through April 2015 all housing starts are up just 5.5% year-over-year; single-family starts are up 7.6%, multifamily starts (buildings with more than four units) are up 1% and permits are up 5.4%. This is evidence of continued but slow incremental improvement.