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Multifamily Decline Leads to Drop in Housing Starts
Housing starts declined 5.1% in August after three months of strong gains, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The decline was precipitated by a 22.7% tumble in starts for multifamily to a seasonally adjusted annualized pace of 395,000 units.
However, construction of single-family housing units, which accounts for the largest share of the housing market, increased 4.1% to a rate of 1.021 million units.
The drop in August to 1.416 million units, both single- and multifamily, was steeper than expected. Economists polled by Reuters had expected new starts to decline to an annualized 1.478 million units.
The pattern of new-start increases in single-family and declines in multifamily also extended to permits for future homebuilding, which declined 0.9% to a rate of 1.470 million units in August. Single-family building permits increased 6.0% to a rate of 1.036 million units, while multifamily building permits decreased 14.2% to a rate of 434,000 units.
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- ◦Economy
- ◦Development
