February Housing Starts Rise 0.8%; Permits Surge 4.6%

WASHINGTON — Housing starts edged up 0.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 917,000 in February from a revised estimate of 910,000 the previous month, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

January starts were originally reported at 890,000.

February building permits rose 4.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 946,000 from the previous month's rate of 904,000 originally reported as 925,000. The February permit mark was the highest since June 2008, when a pace of 1.18 million authorizations was reported.

February starts were slightly above the 915,000 projected by economists polled by Thomson Reuters, and were 27.7% above the February 2012 rate of 718,000.

February permits surpassed the economists' median projection of 925,000, and the February permit figure was 33.8% above the level of 707,000 a year ago.

Regionally, housing starts figures were mixed. They climbed 37.5% in the Midwest and 18.4% in the Northeast, but fell 7.2% in the West and 5.7% in the South.

Building permits fell 18.2% in the Northeast, but rose 9.9% in the South, 6.4% in the West, and 1.4% in the Midwest.

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