US housing starts for February 2016 were up 31 per cent, and — most important for softwood lumber manufacturers in Canada and the US — is US single-family starts are up 24 per cent, both compared to February 2015.
Housing starts rose 5.2 per cent from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.178 million in February, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Starts on single-family homes, which account for roughly two-thirds of the market, rose 7.2 per cent in February to 822,000, their highest level since November 2007. Permits for single-family homes rose 0.4 per cent to 731,000, the second-highest level since the end of December 2007.
Multifamily units, which include apartments and condominiums, rose 0.8 per cent to 356,000.
But new applications for building permits fell 3.1 per cent to 1.167 million, from a revised January rate of 1.204 million, driven by a 8.4 per cent fall in multifamily units. Some of that slowdown could be due to rising prices for land; home builders have been reporting shortages of land and labor for months.
US Housing Starts, Construction Employment: January 2015
Three of four regions had an increase in starts in February, paced by a 26.1 per cent advance in the West, according to the report. Construction sank 51 per cent in the Northeast, the report showed.
A report Tuesday showed builder confidence held at a nine-month low in March as the sales outlook dimmed. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo said its sentiment gauge was unchanged 58, receding further from a decade-high reached in October.
According to the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) and NAHB analysis, the number of open construction sector jobs (on a seasonally adjusted basis) increased to 185,000 in January from 124,000 in December. The January estimate beat the previous cycle high of 177,000 open positions set last May and represents the highest monthly count of job openings since July 2007.
US residential construction employment now stands at 2.584 million, broken down as 716,000 builders, and 1.869 million residential specialty trade contractors.