By Joshua Kirby


U.S. housing starts recovered last month, offering a ray of hope for the home-building sector. Here are the main takeaways from the Commerce Department's report released Thursday.

--Housing starts, a measure of U.S. home building, increased 5.7% in April to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.36 million.

--Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected starts to increase just a little more sharply, to 1.40 million.

--Starts were 0.6% lower than the same month last year.

--March's starts were revised slightly down to 1.29 million.

--Residential permits, which can hint at future home construction, ticked down by 3% to 1.44 million, below economists' forecasts.

--The data offer a little hope to a construction sector that began to lose confidence this month, according to a National Association of Home Builders survey released Wednesday.


Write to Joshua Kirby at joshua.kirby@wsj.com; @joshualeokirby


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

05-16-24 0855ET