Housing completions plunge 15%

WASHINGTON (AP) Housing completions plunged 14.6 percent inFebruary, the biggest decline in almost six years, the governmentreported yesterday.

The Commerce Department said new homes and apartments werecompleted at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.67 million unitsin February, down from a rate of 1.96 million units in January.

It was the first monthly decline since September and the biggestone-month drop since housing completions fell by 15.2 percent in May1981, shortly before the beginning of the 1981-82 recession.

Analysts said the big decline in February overstated theweakness in the housing market. They said it was primarily a returnto more normal levels after a big surge of activity at the end oflast year as builders rushed to finish apartment projects in order toqualify for more favorable treatment under the old tax law.

In February, single-family homes were completed at an annualrate of 1.09 million units, down 10.8 percent from the January level.

There was even more weakness in multi-unit construction, whichplunged 20.8 percent to an annual rate of 585,000 units, afterposting increases of 4.1 percent in January and 15.3 percent inDecember.

Analysts believe that single-family housing will rebound incoming months, but they are forecasting further declines in apartmentconstruction because of widespread overbuilding and the adverseeffect of the new tax law, which took effect Jan. 1.