Housing Starts Flat in February but Forecasters Expect Big Year

Single-family housing starts edged up by 0.5% in February and have been relatively flat since December, according to a new government report released Tuesday morning.

The Census Bureau report shows multifamily starts also leveled off in January and February.

Single-family starts rose to a 618,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate in February from a 615,000 rate in January. Single-family starts are up 31.5% from February 2012.

Multifamily starts edged up to a 285,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate in February, compared to a 283,000 rate in the prior month. Multifamily starts are up 19% from a year ago.

Last year, builders broke ground on 535,000 single-family units and 245,000 multifamily units.

Economists at Wells Fargo Securities are forecasting a 30% increase in single-family starts in 2013 and a 29% increase in multifamily starts.