Surprise rebound in housing, outlook still shaky

Analysts, however, played down the increase, noting that all the strength came from the volatile apartment sector. They said the painful housing slump is far from over as a record flood of foreclosures continues to add to the sizable stockpile of unsold homes.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that housing construction rose by 8.2 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.03 million units. While apartment construction rose by 36 percent, building in the much larger single-family sector of the market fell by 1.7 percent, the 12th consecutive monthly decline, pushing single-family activity down to a 16-year low.

"It is definitely too early to uncork the champagne on the long and winding road to more healthy housing-market conditions," said Brian Bethune, an economist at Global Insight. He said he did not expect housing activity to stabilize until the end of this year.

Len Blum, managing director of investment bank Westwood Capital, said the slump in housing will run for another year because of a number of problems, from banks tightening up on lending standards to the reluctance of many people to commit to a home purchase at a time when home prices are still falling.

"I think estimates that we are near the bottom of the housing correction will prove to be overly optimistic," he said. "We have had a housing bubble and it will take some time to deflate."

The prolonged two-year slump in housing is occurring after a five-year boom which pushed sales and home prices up to record levels. The correction has proven to be a serious drag on the overall economy, raising worries that the country could be in danger of falling into a recession.

A second report Friday showed that consumer confidence, as measured by a University of Michigan/Reuters survey, fell to a 28-year low of 59.5 in a preliminary reading for May, down from 62.6 in April. The drop was blamed in part on rising concerns about higher gas and food prices.

Concerns about falling consumer confidence and another spike in oil prices, to a new trading record of $127.82 a barrel, dampened investors' moods on Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 5.86 points to close at 12,986.80.

Applications for building permits, considered a good sign of future activity, recorded an increase in April, rising by 4.9 percent to 978,000 units. It was the first gain in permits in five months but it still left permits 20 percent below where they were a year ago.