Housing Starts rose 8.2 percent in April to an annual pace of 1.032 million homes. Building permits rose 4.9 percent to 978,000. However, starts of single family homes fell 1.7 percent to an annual pace of 692,000 units, the lowest level since January 1991. Despite the increase in total starts, this report still clearly shows that the housing market continues to struggle amid falling home values and tighter lending standards. And with the large number of homes currently on the market, no turnaround is imminent.
