US home construction starts fell 6.1 per cent in July to their lowest in more than 10 years, a government report today showed.
The Commerce Department said housing starts set an annual pace of 1.381 million units in July, lower than Wall Street forecasts for 1.405 million units as well as the upwardly revised 1.470 million rate for June. It was the lowest pace for housing starts since the January 1997 rate of 1.355 million units.
Building permit activity, a sign of future construction plans, sank to a nearly 11-year low, the department found.
Building permits fell 2.8 per cent in July to an annual pace of 1.373 million, their lowest since October 1996 when they reached 1.358 million.
The drop in housing starts was the worst in the South, where they fell 11 per cent in July. Starts fell 3.7 per cent in the West and 1.3 per cent in the Northeast, but they rose 2.6 per cent in the Midwest.