Housing Starts Down 8.7% In April
(Dow Jones) Japan’s housing starts fell 8.7% in April from a year earlier to 97,930 units, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Friday.
The result was better than the 11.0% decline forecast by a Dow Jones and Nikkei poll of economists.
That was the 10th straight month of declines. The orders fell 15.6% in March and 5.0% in February.
Annualized housing starts stood at 1.151 million units.
Note that this is now higher than in the US, with a far lower population.
US starts should move well above this level over the next few months.
Housing starts for individual homes in April fell 7.8% to 27,274 units, while rental housing starts slipped 5.3% to 39,220 units.
Starts for multiunit dwellings, meanwhile, fell 10.4% to 31,048 units, including condominiums.
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