The housing industry still has to dig out of a deep hole, but residential construction data posted by the Department of Commerce offered some reason to cheer.

While the January building permit data for total privately-owned housing units (621,000 permits issued) was 4.9 percent below the revised December rate of 653,000, the year-to-year numbers are 16.9 percent above the January 2009 estimate of 531,000. Single-family authorizations in January were at a rate of 507,000 — 0.4 percent above the revised December figure of 505,000, but a whopping 48.2 percent above January 2009. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Washington, D.C., said the decline in total building permits was due entirely to a 23 percent decline to 114,000 units on the multi-family side, which offset a big gain in that sector the previous month.

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