April housing starts burst to a seven-year high

If the industry was feeling skeptical about the housing recovery in 2015, April's new residential construction report gave everyone a reason to do a double take.

Housing starts reached a seven-year peak last month, jumping 20.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.14 million, according to the Commerce Department.

This marks the highest figure since November 2007, as well as a significant improvement over March's 944,000 rate. It's also 9.2% above April 2014's rate.

For the single-family market, starts came in at 733,000, a monthly improvement of 16.7% over March's 628,000.

Additionally, building permits pointed to much promising activity in the months ahead: April's permits reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.14 million as well.

Regionally, the biggest improvement occurred in the winter-beaten Northeast, which jumped from 99,000 starts in March to 184,000 in April. The Midwest and West also saw improvements, though activity in the South backtracked a little.