US housing starts rise by more than expected in February, but details less solid

Homebuilding activity in the States perked up last month, but the details of the data were a bit less impressive.

According to the US Department of Commerce, in seasonally adjusted terms, housing starts rose by 9.8% month-on-month in February to reach an annual rate of 1.45m (consensus: 1.31m).

However, starts on single-family homes were up by a more modest 1.1% to 830,000.

Building permits jumped by 13.8% to 1.339m, alongside a 7.6% rise in those for single-family homes.

"US housing starts were much stronger than expected in February, with a surge in the volatile multi-sector accounting for most of the increase," Nancy Vanden Houten and Ryan Sweet at Oxford Economics said in a research report sent to clients.

"The rise in single family starts in February, albeit modest, suggests that the housing sector may have bottomed in January."

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