U.S. Housing Starts Drop on Apartments, Condominiums

Builders broke ground on the fewest homes on record in April as a plunge in work on condominiums and apartment buildings overwhelmed the second straight gain in starts on single-family properties.

Housing starts slid 13 percent to an annual rate of 458,000, a lower level than forecast, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The drop was led by a 46 percent tumble in multifamily starts, a category that tends to be more volatile.

The slump in homebuilding has brought the supply of new properties below the rate that new households are being created, offering prospects of a recovery in the second half of 2009, analysts said. Surging unemployment and the continuing credit crunch mean the recovery is likely to be weak, they added.

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- Posted: 2009-05-19 09:34:03

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