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