Dive summary:

• The National Association of Home Builders was unfazed by federal numbers that showed January housing starts were 8.5% off December's pace, saying that it was all because of multifamily falling after an unusually high December and that single-family starts rose and both types of building permits were up.
• The starts last month registered an annual pace of 890,000 units, according to the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but permits for single-family construction went up 1.5% from December in the biggest month-to-month gain since mid-2008, NAHB reported.
• Rick Judson of Charlotte, N.C., the group's chairman, said, “We expect this progress to continue through the spring buying season and beyond, with credit availability and poor appraisals being the primary limiting factors.”

From the article:

"The decline in multifamily starts reflects an adjustment from an unsustainably large gain in December, and is consistent with the up-and-down swings that are often associated with that sector." ...