News Story: Housing starts bumped up slightly in April while new building permits dropped to the slowest pace since June 1997, according to figures released by the Commerce Department. Housing starts increased 2.5 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.528 million units, following downward Commerce Department revisions for the two previous months. Starts were down 16.1 percent from a year earlier. Building permits, a more reliable indicator of housing construction activity, dropped 8.9 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.429 million units. Permits were down 28.1 percent from a year earlier. Starts of new single-family homes were up 1.6 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.225 million units. The pace was 18.9 percent below a year earlier. Multifamily housing construction increased 6.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 303,000 units for the month, a 2.6 percent decrease from April 2006.

Single-family permit issuance was down 6.0 percent to a pace of 1.063 million units for the month. This was 28.8 percent below a year earlier. The pace of multifamily permit issuance dropped 16.4 percent to 366,000 units for the month. This was 26.1 percent below the April 2006 pace.