Information from The Wall Street Journal
U.S. home construction tumbled in June, a surprising sign of weakness for a sector that has struggled to maintain momentum over the past year.
Housing starts sank 9.3% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 893,000, the weakest showing since September 2013, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
It was the second-straight monthly drop and was driven by a nearly 30% decline in the South, the largest monthly decrease on record for that part of the country. Other parts of the U.S., however, posted increases.
Though the report was a disappointment overall, there were a few silver linings. For the entire second quarter, construction of single-family homes was up 4% from a year ago, compared with a 2% yearly decline for the first three months of the year. Permits for single-family homes were up 2.6% from the prior month and housing starts were up 7.5% from a year earlier.
