New housing starts rise March over February!

National Association of Home Builders released figures today showing that housing starts were up 7.2 over February of this year.  Yeehaw. 

The International Business Times reported "Regionally, the Midwest saw the most impressive gains, rising 32.3 percent. The West also saw double-digits gains of 27.6 percent. The Northeast experienced a more modest 5.4 percent gain, while the South saw housing starts decline by 3.3 percent.

The U.S. Commerce Department reports that building permits were also up, rising 11.2 percent. In fact, the only region that didn't post a gain was the Northeast. The West was up by 37.1 percent. Single-family permits rose just 5.7 percent, while multifamily permits rose 25.2 percent . However, this is still 20% behind March 2010 rate.
Photo Courtesy of Forbes Construction, Londonderry, VT

Improvement is certainly better than no improvement.