Housing starts decreased 2% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.559 million units, according to reuters.com. Economists expected starts to come in at a rate of 1.58 million units.
Housing starts were down 6.3% compared with June 2021. Applications for building permits, a good indication of future activity, fell 0.6% to 1.685 million units in June.
Single-family housing starts fell 8.1% as mortgage rates climbed, and the rate for multifamily starts rose 15% to 568,000 units. Building permits for single-family homes declined 8% to a rate of 967,000 units—the lowest since June 2020.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged nearly 6% in June.
The number of single-family homes authorized for construction but not yet started rose 1.1%, and the single-family housing backlog fell 1.3% in June.