Residential building permits, seen as a signal the amount of construction is in the pipeline, fell 4.1%
U.S. housing starts fell last month, driven by a pullback in multifamily construction.
The Wall Street Journal reports housing starts decreased 4.8% in July from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.155 million, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. Residential building permits, which can signal how much construction is in the pipeline, fell 4.1% to an annual pace of 1.223 million.
Starts ticked down 0.5% in July for single-family construction and plummeted 15.3% for multifamily construction. Permits last month were flat for single-family homes and down 11.2% for buildings with multiple units.
Housing-starts data are volatile from month to month and can be subject to large revisions.
New housing construction has eased since touching a post-recession high in October 2016. Building remains well below the peak touched in 2005 and 2006, when the housing bubble was building, the Journal reported.
Softer home construction was a drag on economic growth this spring. A separate Commerce Department report last month showed spending on home building and improvements dropped at a 6.8% annualized pace during the second quarter, the sharpest decline since 2010. That was a significant factor keeping broader output growth at a moderate 2.6% rate.
