Pretty amazing – U.S. housing starts were up 9.1% last month, and the increase was fueled almost entirely by multi-family construction in NYC. Single-family housing starts dropped 5.3% nationwide, and excluding multi-family housing starts in the northeast, overall new housing starts dropped 4%.

FT attributes the NYC increase to the enactment of the new building code on 1 July, which they say prompted builders to rush to file plans under the old code. I bet the changes in the 421-a program also had a big impact on these numbers. Either way, it will be very interesting to see how many of these “starts” stay building, and how many wind up as grandfathered foundations.