In a sign that theU.S.housing recovery is truly taking hold, the Census Bureau reported that housing starts in March topped the 1 million annualized rate for the first time in five years.

Total housing starts reached the benchmark of 1.036 million, which is up 7 percent from February. Single-family starts dropped a bit, 4.8 percent from February, but new residential construction showed gains in every region of the country but the Northeast. Construction was up 10.9 percent in the South and 9.6 percent in theMidwest.

New home sales are expected to rise a bit with the increase in housing starts, with the National Association of Home Builders projected 463,000 sales nationwide, up from a dismal 366,000 in 2012.