Housing starts dropped 8.5% in August to 1.307 million units, according to Reuters. Economists expected housing starts to fall to an annual rate of 1.365 million units.
Applications for building permits, a good indication of future activity, fell 3.7% to 1.312 million units in August.
Single-family housing starts fell 7% to a rate of 890,000 units. Multifamily starts fell 11% to a rate of 403,000 units. Building permits for single-family homes fell 2.2% to a rate of 856,000 units, and permits for multifamily homes fell 6.7% to a rate of 403,000 units.
The completions rate for the single-family housing segment rose 6.7% to 1.090 million units in August after climbing to 1.022 million units in July.
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell to 6.35% during the week of Sept. 8, which is the lowest level since October 2024.
