From a May 20, 2009 Report:

Single-family home construction posted a modest rebound in April, raising hopes that the three-year slide in housing is leveling off. But a bulging supply of unsold homes, record levels of foreclosures and still-falling home prices suggest that a sustained recovery isn’t likely until next spring at the earliest.

The Commerce Department said yesterday that construction of homes and apartments fell 12.8 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 458,000 units. That’s the lowest pace on records going back a half-century.

Applications for new building permits dropped 3.3 percent to an annual rate of 494,000, also a record low.

All of last month’s weakness came in the volatile multifamily part of construction. By contrast, single-family construction and permits both rose, which economists took as a hopeful sign that this bigger sector of home construction is stabilizing.

. . .  . .

The government report yesterday showed that multifamily construction plunged 46.1 percent to an annual rate of 90,000 units after a 23 percent fall in March. Permits for multifamily construction dropped 19.9 percent to 121,000 units.

Analysts said apartment construction is being hurt by a glut of condominiums on the market and by tightening credit conditions for commercial real estate.

Construction of single-family homes rose 2.8 percent in April to an annual rate of 368,000. That followed a 0.3 percent gain in March and no change in February.

Building permits for single-family homes rose 3.6 percent to a rate of 373,000 last month.

via Housing slump could be near bottom | Richmond Times-Dispatch.