Driven by pent-up demand, the nation's housing starts broke the million mark for the first time in 2014. According to Commerce Department 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.

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