According to the U.S. Census Bureau News & U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development report, housing starts were up 3.5% in May to an annual rate of 560,000. This comes after April’s revised estimate of 541,000, but is still down 3.4% from May of last year. The single family component did well, with a 3.7% increase from April. Multi-family units did much better with an 8.9% increase from April at 134,000, and a 24.1% increase from May 2010.

Building permits for May had growth in single and multi-family components, with 2.5% and 29.3% increases respectively. Total permits authorized were at an annual rate of 612,000, 8.7% higher than April and 5.2% more than May 2010.

Housing completions in May were at an SAAR of 544,000, up a slight 0.4% from April. These numbers are still well below last years’, down 22.5% from the 702,000 annual rate in May 2010. The single family component was up 2.9% from April, at 431,000, but was still 16.6% down from last year’s. Multi-family was unchanged, remaining at an annual rate of 108,000 units for the second month in a row.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau News & U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development