New housing construction in Connecticut appears to be getting off to a slow start this year.

In March, 104 of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities authorized 401 new housing units, according to data released Wednesday by the state Department of Economic and Community Development, nearly doubling the total of new housing units authorized so far this year to 899.

Just under half – 432 – the new units authorized in the first quarter of 2019 were single-family homes, while a similar number – 437 – were in multifamily buildings with five or more units.

The March totals represent a 15 percent drop in overall permitting compared to the first quarter of 2018, but a 16 percent jump in single-family homes permitted and a 30 percent drop in the number of units in large multifamily buildings permitted.

In the last four years, the state has seen declines year-over-year housing permitted from 5,322 permitted in all of 2015, with the exception of a slight uptick in 2018.