Single-family housing starts retreated 5.9% in May after a 13.2% spike last week, posting a rate of 625,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
This is below April’s revised rate of 664,000.
Meanwhile, privately-owned housing starts in May also declined and fell 6.5% below April’s revised figure of 1,071,000.
However, this is still 9.4% above last year’s trends when May 2013 posted a rate of 915,000.
Single-family housing authorizations in May came in at a rate of 619,000, 3.7% above the revised April figure of 597,000, while privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in May posted a rate of 991,000, which was 6.4% below the revised April rate of 1,059,000, but only 1.9% below May 2013.
Single-family housing completions gained 2.1% in May over April and hit a rate of 618,000.
In addition, privately-owned housing completions in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 897,000, which is 6.8% above April’s revised estimate of 840,000 and is 24.8% above the May 2013 rate of 719,000.
