US April Housing Starts show a retreat - Wells Fargo

Analysts from Wells Fargo, point out that in today’s US April housing starts report, the decline in multifamily units pushed the headline lower, while single-family starts rose. They expect homebuilding to trend higher in 2017.

Key Quotes: 

“Housing starts fell 2.6 percent in April, as a 9.2 percent drop in multifamily exceeded a modest 0.4 percent pickup in singlefamily construction. Building permits also pulled back 2.5 percent on the month, but are still trending above starts.”

“We suspect the milder winter weather that supported homebuilding at the start of the year has made it more difficult for housing starts to post larger than usual gains this spring."

“Despite the disappointing print, housing starts for the first four months of the year are running 5.3 percent ahead of their year-ago level and single-family starts are up a stronger 7.0 percent."

“The upward trend in single-family starts is consistent with  yesterday’s strong homebuilder confidence report. We look for homebuilding to continue to trend higher and expect total housing starts to register a 7.3 percent gain in 2017.”