U.S. Building Permits Dropped in April

The U.S. building permits dropped in April, indicating the housing market is trying to keep afloat amid inadequacy of land and skilled labor.

The Housing starts slid to 3.7 percent to the seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.287 million units in April, according to the Commerce Department on Wednesday. The contraction reversed the increase in March.

The data for March implies indicates growth to 1.336n million units rate compared to the previous data of 1.319 million-unit pace. Building permits declined by 1.8 percent to 1.352 million units last month.

Forecast of economists anticipated the housing starts to drop down up to 1.310 million units last month and permits narrowed to 1.350 million-unit rate, which majority decreased in Northeast, Midwest, and West, except for the increase in South.

The U.S. financial markets were shortly driven by the data.

The housing starts for the single households were recorded with the biggest share of the housing market and grew by 0.1 percent to 894,000 units last month. It has lost its momentum when it settled on the figure of 948,000-unit pace last November, which was the strongest over 10 years.

The gain in single-family starts was outperformed by 11.3 percent decline in pioneering activity of multi-family housing units. Residential construction was lessened following the increase of building materials and shortages of land and skilled workers.

However, a recent survey on Tuesday reflects the confidence of single-family home builders as it gained momentum in May. Builders said that the prices affect bottom lines of builders that makes is more difficult to price at competitive rates for newcomers in the market.

Meanwhile, the figures last month shows an increase in single-family houses of 0.9 percent to 859,000 units in April. Permits for multi-family units declined to 6.3 percent to 493,000 unit-pace. The number of single-family completed units dropped to 4.0 percent in April, while single-family units under construction increased 1.0 percent to the highest level since June 2008.