Housing starts push 13.2% higher in April

Feeling the effects of pent-up demand, the nation's housing starts broke the million mark for the first time in 2014.

According to data released this morning, U.S. housing starts came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,072,000, up 13.2% from March's revised estimate of 947,000 and 26.4% above April 2013's rate.

Total starts came in at the highest level since November 2013, and well above economists' prediction of about 980,000, according to multiple estimates.

Building permits also performed at an impressive clip, hitting their highest level in nearly six years. Specifically, permits jumped 8.0% to a 1.08 million unit rate, a level not seen since June 2008.

Single-family housing starts held steady at 649,000, which was only 0.8% above March's revised figure of 644,000. Instead, multi-family homes surged 39.6%.