Private-owned housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 917,000 in February, according to a report released jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last week. This marks a 0.8 percent increase over the estimated rate in January and a 27.7 percent increase above the rate one year ago. The building permits rate for privately-owned housing units was also up in February by 4.6 percent compared to the previous month, while the housing completions rate was down slightly by 0.6 percent compared to the January estimate.

Existing home sales were also up in February, according to data released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) last week. Existing home sales rose 0.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.98 million last month, 10.2 percent above the level observed in February 2012 and the highest level reached since the homebuyer tax credit period in November 2009.

Link(s): Census-HUD News Release; NAR News Release