Housing starts dropped 4.5% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.309 million units, according to cnn.com.
Applications for building permits, a good indication of future activity, rose 0.1% to 1.339 million units in January.
Single-family housing starts fell 4.3% to a rate of 841,000 units, and multifamily starts fell 1.2% to a rate of 457,000 units. Building permits for single-family homes declined 1.8% to a rate of 718,000 units, and permits for multifamily homes rose 1.4% to a rate of 563,000.
Housing starts fell 21.4% compared with January 2022, and building permits dropped 27.3%.
