Housing Starts Fall to 17-Year Low

New housing starts fell 3.3% in May as builders broke ground on the fewest number of houses in 17 years, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

Housing starts fell to an annual rate of 975,000, from a revised 1.008 million in April, Commerce said.

Building permits, an indicator of new construction, fell 1.3% to an annual pace of 969,000.

Economists had forecast that housing starts would fall to an annual rate of 980,000 units, while permits were forecast to fall to 960,000, Bloomberg reported.