Last month, for the first time in eight months, housing starts in the United States increased, surging 22 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 583,000, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Tuesday.
The monthly increase, which was the largest in 19 years, was fueled by a spike in new construction of apartment buildings, as fewer consumers are qualified to be homeowners with the more restricted flows of credit.
Single-family homes under construction dropped 3.4 to 370,000, the lowest in 38 years.
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By region, monthly housing starts rose 89 percent in the Northeast, rose 58 percent in the Midwest, rose 30 percent in the South and fell 25 percent in the West.
