Housing starts increased by a modest 0.9% in August to an annual rate of 891,000 units, the Commerce Department says, which is slightly ahead of July’s revised estimate but less than what economists had been expecting, according to news reports.
Multifamily starts declined by more than 11%, but single-family starts were up by 7% to an annual rate of 628,000.
Regionally, the South showed the biggest gains, with a 12% overall increase, 2.3% for single-family housing. Overall housing starts in the West and Northeast fell by 10.9% and 8.2% respectively, but single-family projects were up by 17.5% and 9.6% respectively. The Midwest showed a 3.3% decline overall, but registered a 7.1% increase for single-family houses.
As meager as the overall growth seemed to be, it was still 19% better than the same month a year ago.
Building permits issued in August were off by 3.8%, but still 11% better than last year.
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