Dive Brief:

• Federal numbers for housing starts last month show that warmer weather was not the panacea for ragged building performance this year, with the total figures down 6.5% from April.
• Both single-family and multifamily were off – single-family by 5.9% to an annualized pace of 625,000 and multifamily by 7.6% to 376,000.
• The National Association of Home Builders attributed the performance partly to builder caution about demand. The group and MarketWatch both pointed out that at least single-family permits were up 3.7%, though multifamily fell 19.5% for an overall loss.

Dive Insight:

The other factors that NAHB cited for the slow May activity were supply problems with building lots and labor. Nonetheless, the organization is sticking to its prediction of a 12% increase in total housing starts this year over 2013. Most economists have said that whatever the final figure, 2014 will not see the gains made last year.