Building permits in April 2011 were 551,000, down 4.0% from the March revised rate and 12.8% below the revised April 2010 estimate. Housing starts in April 2011 were 523,000, 10.6% below the revised March estimate and 23.9% below the revised April 2010 rate.
Building permits in March 2011 were 594,000, up 11.2% from February but down 13.3% from March 2010. Housing starts in March were 549,000, up 7.2% from February but down 13.4% from March 2010.
Building permits in February 2011 were 517,000, down 8.2% from January and down 20.5% from February 2010. Housing starts were 479,000 in February 2011, down 22.5% from the prior month and down 20.8% from the prior year.
On Wednesday, March 16th, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau will release February data on housing starts and building permits. After experiencing a huge downturn, private forecasters expect housing activity to improve appreciably during 2011 and 2012. The Blue Chip consensus expects housing starts to increase about 13 percent during 2011 and an additional 30 percent during 2012.
Building permits in January 2011 were 562,000, down 10.4 percent from December 2010 and down 10.7 percent from January 2010. Housing starts were 596,000 in January 2011, up 14.6 percent from the prior month, but down 2.6 percent from the prior year.
