Widget Image
Follow PPD Social Media
Saturday, November 23, 2024
HomeNewsEconomyU.S. Housing Starts Unexpectedly Fall in March for Second Consecutive Month

U.S. Housing Starts Unexpectedly Fall in March for Second Consecutive Month

housing-starts-new-home-construction
housing-starts-new-home-construction

New home construction workers. (Photo: Reuters)

The Commerce Department said on Tuesday that U.S. housing starts fell 8.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.09 million units in March. That’s the lowest level since October and missed the median forecast.

Economists polled by Reuters had estimated 1.170 million for building permits, which are a sign of future activity. The Commerce Department report was the latest in a slew of bad economic data suggesting a slumping housing market and slowdown for the world’s largest economy.

Last month, groundbreaking on single-family housing projects, the largest segment of the market, tumbled 9.2 percent to a 764,000-unit pace, the lowest since October.

Single-family starts fell in all four regions last month, sliding 4.9 percent in the South, where most home building takes place. Housing starts for the volatile multi-family segment declined 7.9 percent to a 325,000-unit pace.

Building permits dropped 7.7 percent to a 1.09 million-unit rate last month, the lowest level since March last year. Permits for the construction of single-family homes decreased 1.2 percent in March, while multi-family building permits plunged 18.6 percent.

Written by

PPD Business, the economy-reporting arm of People's Pundit Daily, is "making sense of current events." We are a no-holds barred, news reporting pundit of, by, and for the people.

No comments

leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

People's Pundit Daily
You have %%pigeonMeterAvailable%% free %%pigeonCopyPage%% remaining this month. Get unlimited access and support reader-funded, independent data journalism.

Start a 14-day free trial now. Pay later!

Start Trial