The Commerce Department this morning reported that housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.032 million in April, an 8.2% increase from March. Economists, on average, predicted housing starts to drop to 939,000.

However, the gain isn't attributable to starts of single-family homes, which actually declined for a 12th consecutive month. More specifically, single-family housing starts slumped 1.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 692,000 the lowest rate since January 1991. In fact, the gain in housing starts in April looks to come from a 36% increase in multi-family units.

On a year-over-year basis, housing starts are down 31%, while single-family starts are down a whopping 42%. Building permits - which increased 4.9% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 978,000 are down 34% in the past year. Single-family building permits are down 40% from a year ago, even after the latest data revealed a 4% rise in April the first increase in 13 months.

In related news, the National Association of Home Builders yesterday reported that builders' assessment of current sales conditions ranked as the worst in the 23-year history of the survey.