(Reuters) – U.S. housing starts and permits fell in August, but upward revisions to the prior month’s data suggested the housing market continued to gradually improve.
Groundbreaking declined 14.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual 956,000-unit pace, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. July’s starts were revised to show a 1.12-million unit rate, the highest level since November 2007, instead of the previously reported 1.09-million unit rate.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast starts slipping to a 1.04-million unit rate last month.
