--US April housing starts +1.5% to 1.609-mln-unit rate
--US April housing permits -2.5% to 1.587 mln
--US March housing starts revised to -2.3% from -1.3%
--US March starts rate revised to 1.586 mln from 1.613 mln
--US Apr single-family starts +6.7%; Mar revised to -6.3% from -4.3%
--US April housing completions +4.7% to 1.533 mln

By Simon Kennedy
Washington, May 16 (BridgeNews) - Low mortgage rates continued to support the housing market in April as groundbreaking on new homes rose 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted 1.609-million-unit annual rate, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. However, building permits, an indicator of future housing activity, fell 2.5% to an annual pace of 1.587 million.
* * * Private analysts surveyed by BridgeNews had projected 1.600 million starts and 1.615 million permits. April's increase in starts was offset by a downward revision in March to down 2.3% to 1.586 million. Previously, March starts had been reported down 1.3% to 1.613 million.
The housing market, while fading slightly, has outperformed the rest of the weak economy, largely because mortgage rates have edged lower more quickly than Federal Reserve interest rates.

WHAT WAS EXPECTED:
Estimates for April housing starts ranged from 1.525 million to 1.743 million, according to a BridgeNews survey. Estimates for building permits ranged from 1.550 million to 1.682 million.
SINGLE- AND MULTI-FAMILY STARTS:
--Single-family housing starts jumped 6.7% to a rate of 1.288 million units in April.
--But starts for projects consisting of five units or more plunged 17.2% to 280,000 in April. The Commerce Department has ceased to calculate sales of homes with 2-4 units.

REGIONAL ACTIVITY:
--The Northeast, where starts rose 10.6%, led April new housing activity.
Housing starts in the West climbed 6.8%, while those in the South increased 5.1%. However, starts in the Midwest fell 16.7%.

DETAILS:
--In April, not seasonally adjusted starts totaled 150,000 units, up 0.3 from a year earlier.
--Building permits totaled 143,200 in April on an unadjusted basis, up 3.1% from a year earlier.
--For the year so far, starts totaled 497,600, down 1.8% from the comparable 2000 period.
--Housing completions increased 4.7% in April to a rate of 1.533 million.
In March, they fell a revised 4.4% to 1.464 million, previously reported as down 6.1%.