By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
February 20 2008: 11:51 AM EST
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) ? New construction of single-family homes fell to a 17-year low in January, according to a government report on the battered housing market released Wednesday.
At the same time, a pickup in apartments and condo construction resulted in a rare gain for housing starts overall.
Starts of single-family homes fell to an annual rate of 743,000 in the tenth straight monthly decline.
The level of single-family home building is down 5 percent from December, 34% from a year earlier and 60% from the record high reached only two years ago.
Still even with the continued decline in single-family homes, housing starts edged up to an annual rate of 1.02 million from the revised 1 million rate for December. The overall number for January was roughly in line with the forecasts of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.
The increase was due to a gain in starts in multi-family units, such as condos and apartment buildings, which posted a nearly 18% jump from December. Starts of multi-family housing units are a much more volatile measure than single-family starts. The narrow rise in overall housing starts marked only the second rise in the last eight months for that reading.
Mike Larson, real estate analyst for research firm Weiss Research, said the weakness in single-family home construction isn’t a surprise, given the weakness in demand. Potential buyers are having more trouble arranging for financing or selling their existing homes, and many are nervous about buying in a market with falling home values.
See the full article here.
