Housing Starts Drop 22.5% in February

Housing starts saw their largest drop since March 1984 in January, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

Starts fell 22.5% to an annual rate of 479,000 units, the lowest since April 2009, Commerce said.

The level was lower than economists’ projections of a 566,000 annual rate, Bloomberg reported.

Building permits, an indicator of future construction, fell 8.2% to a 517,000 annual rate, the lowest level on record.

Single-family home starts, which account for about 85% of the total, decreased 12% to a 375,000 rate, the lowest since March 2009.

Work on multifamily units, which is often more volatile, plunged 46% to a 104,000 rate.

Starts fell in all four regions of the country.