Dive summary:

• Residential construction starts helped pull overall starts up 5% last month to an annual pace of $495.7 billion, but with nonresidential and nonbuilding chipped in gains, too.
• The results pushed another measure of the industry, the Dodge Index, to 105 on a scale that is based on 100 for the year 2000.
• From a longer perspective, construction starts this year are still down 3% from the save five months of 2012, but they would be going the other way if it were not for one sector – electric utilities.

From the article:

"The housing sector played a leading role last year in lifting overall construction activity, and while this year’s month-to-month gains have been smaller, housing continues to lead the hesitant construction expansion. ..."