U.S. home building jumps in June after dismal spring

Builders broke ground on more single-family homes and apartments in June as the home-building industry tried to shake off a historically bad spring. The Commerce Department says builders began work on a seasonally adjusted 629,000 homes last month, a 14.6% increase from May. Still, that’s roughly half the 1.2 million homes per year that economists say must be built to sustain a healthy housing market. Much of the increase came from a surge in apartment construction, a volatile part of the industry. That jumped 31.8% last month. Single-family home construction rose a more modest 9.4%. Building permits, a gauge of future construction, increased 2.5%. June’s building pace was the best showing since January, and single-family home construction saw the biggest monthly increase since June 2009, when the recession ended. Though new homes represent just 20% of the overall home market, they have an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in taxes, according to the National Association of Home Builders.