Housing Starts Dip 1.5% in July
Housing starts declined 1.5% in July, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.
Starts decreased to an annual rate of 604,000 units from a revised rate of 613,000 starts in June, Commerce said.
The July level was slightly higher than economists’ projections of a 600,000 rate, Bloomberg reported.
June’s rate was previously estimated at 629,000.
Building permits, an indicator of future construction, declined to 597,000, from 617,000 the previous month. They were projected to drop to 605,000, Bloomberg said.
Single-family home starts, which account for about 85% of the total, fell 4.9% to a 425,000 rate. Work on multifamily units, which is often more volatile, rose 7.8% to a 179,000 rate.
Starts plummeted 38% in the Midwest, but soared 35% in the Northeast. They increased 5.6% in the South and declined 3% in the West.
