Residential building permits, which can signal future home construction, rose 3.6%
By Laura Kusisto and Ben Leubsdorf | The Wall Street Journal
U.S. housing starts declined in March, but not enough to signal a reversal from the long-term trend of improvement in new home construction.
Starts decreased 6.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.215 million from a month earlier, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.
The decline comes after an unusually strong winter, buoyed by temperate weather in most parts of the country. Single-family housing starts in February hit their highest level since October 2007.
