New US government figures show that housing starts and building permits slumped to record lows last month. The news has dented hopes that stability was returning to the US housing market.
The Commerce Department said housing starts fell 12.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 458,000 units from March's upwardly revised 525,000 units. The April figure was the lowest on records dating back to January 1959.
Compared with the same period last year, housing starts tumbled 54.2%. Analysts had expected only a slight fall from March.
New building permits, which give a sense of future home construction, dropped 3.3% to 494,000 units, the lowest since records started in January 1960, from 511,000 in March. Compared with the same period a year ago, building permits plunged 50.2%.
A National Association of Home Builders survey on Monday showed that US home builder sentiment surged to an eight-month high in May, with industry leaders hopeful the three-year housing slump was nearing a bottom and market stability around the corner.
Collapsing domestic home prices and the resultant global credit crisis pushed the US economy into recession in December 2007 and restoring stability to the housing market is seen as a key element to a recovery in the economy.
Meanwhile, aggressive cost-cutting helped Home Depot, the word's largest home improvement chain, to report a bigger than expected profit in the latest quarter despite the deep housing slump.
