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News Aug. 19, 2021

Housing starts fall more than expected in July

Housing starts fell 7% in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.534 million units, according to reuters.com. The rate was lower than economists’ expectations of 1.6 million units.

Additionally, housing starts were up 2.5% compared with July 2020. Applications for building permits, a good indication of future activity, rose 2.6% to 1.635 million units in July.

Single-family housing starts fell 4.5% to 1.111 million units, and multifamily starts fell 13.1% to 423,000 units.

The report from the Commerce Department showed a rebound in building permits after three straight monthly declines, but the gain was in the volatile multifamily home segment, which jumped 11.2%. The number of houses authorized for construction but not yet started was the third highest on record in July, signaling builders still are hesitant to take on new projects.

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