Dive Brief:

• Residential construction took a slight nose dive last month, falling 15.9% for single-family homes and 16.3% for multifamily homes to an annual pace of 880,000 for all homes, government figures showed.
• The National Association of Home Builders attributed the decline to bitter cold. The Midwest, which was in a deep freeze for most of the month, fell 60.3% for single-family starts.
• Overall permit activity was down 5.4%, but single-family was almost even with a 1.3% decline, and buildings with five or more units were pulling down the total with a 13% fall.

Dive Insight:

NAHB looked at the permit data as a predictor, saying that it showed that the organization's forecast for growth this year is backed by the data. The NAHB index of builder confidence also was down for January, but that was due in part to rising materials costs, labor shortages and an inadequate number of lots, new NAHB Chairman Kevin Kelly of Wilmington, Del., said.