Housing Starts Fall 5%; Building Permits Unexpectedly Climb
Housing starts fell 5% in August, but building permits increased, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.
Starts fell to a three-month low rate of 571,000 units, from 604,000 in July.
The rate was lower than economists’ forecasts of a 590,000 rate, Bloomberg reported.
Building permits, an indicator of future construction, rose 3.2% to 620,000, more than forecast and the highest this year, Bloomberg said.
Single-family home starts, which account for about 85% of the total, fell 1.4% to a 417,000 rate.
The number of homes under construction fell to a record low 408,000 rate, and in three of four regions, single-family dwellings starts fell to all-time lows.
Work on multifamily units, which is often more volatile, plunged 13.5% to a 154,000 annual rate.
Starts fell in two of four national regions, led by a 29.1% drop in the Northeast, exacerbated by Hurricane Irene, Bloomberg reported.
