Northeast Housing Starts Were Down 17.8%

Housing starts were up an impressive 11% nationwide in April, however, they declined 17.8% in the Northeast. I wonder if that means that homebuilders in the Northeast have completely run out of room. Or maybe the drop in the Northeast means that homebuilders are anticipating fading demand.

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. housing starts surged 11.0 percent in April, topping expectations, as ground-breaking on both single-family and multifamily homes recovered after a plunge in March, a Commerce Department report showed on Tuesday.

April housing starts picked up to a 2.038 million unit rate from a downwardly revised 1.836 million unit pace in March as the housing market, buoyed by still-low lending rates, showed few signs of flagging despite a string of interest-rate increases from the Federal Reserve begun last June.”

Snip…

“In the U.S. South, groundbreaking soared 25 percent, marking the biggest advance for that region since a 29.5 percent increase in July 1995. Starts rose 6.2 percent in the Midwest and 2.5 percent in the West but fell 17.8 percent in the Northeast, the Commerce Department said.”