--US February housing starts -0.4% to 1.647-mln-unit rate
--US February housing permits -3.1% to 1.670 million
--US January housing starts revised to +4.8% from +5.3%
--US January starts rate revised to 1.653 mln from 1.651 mln
--US Feb single-family starts -2.4%; Jan revised to +3.8% from +2.8%
--US Feb multi-family starts +8.5%; Jan revised to +9.7% from +17.8%

By Simon Kennedy
Washington, March 16 (BridgeNews) - U.S. housing starts declined 0.4% in February but the seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.647 million units still topped analyst expectations of 1.600 million. Building permits, an indicator of future housing activity, dropped 3.1% in February to an annual rate of 1.670 million but topped the 1.600 million projected.
* * * The decline in starts was intensified by a downward revision to the previous month's rate of change. Housing starts rose a revised 4.8% in January to 1.653 million units--the highest rate in one year--after being initially reported up 5.3% to a pace of 1.651 million, the Commerce Department said Friday.
The housing market has remained solid despite weakness elsewhere in the economy, with analysts explaining its weakness by noting an easing in mortgage rates to 7%--their lowest level in several years. Prior to the report's release, some economists said poor weather conditions depressed construction in February.
WHAT WAS EXPECTED:
Estimates for February housing starts ranged from 1.550 million to 1.680 million, according to a BridgeNews survey. Estimates for building permits ranged from 1.540 million to 1.650 million.
SINGLE- AND MULTI-FAMILY STARTS:
--Single-family housing starts tumbled 2.4% to a rate of 1.315 million units.
--Multi-family starts, which often swing sharply from month to month, jumped 8.5% to 332,000 units.
REGIONAL ACTIVITY:
--The West, where starts fell 8.1%, led February's drop. They slipped 2.7% in the Midwest but shot up 21.0% in the Northeast and grew 1.5% in the South.
DETAILS:
--In February, not seasonally adjusted starts totaled 109,200 units, down 10.6% from a year earlier.
--Building permits totaled 111,300 in February on an unadjusted basis, down 3.0% from a year earlier.
--For the first two months of the year, starts totaled 214,400, down 5.7% from the comparable 2000 period. End
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