A completed house (rear) is seen behind the earthworks of a home currently under construction at the Mid-Atlantic Builder’s ‘The Villages of Savannah’ development site in Brandywine, Maryland May 31, 2013. (Photo: Reuters)
The U.S. Census Bureau said Wednesday in the New Residential Construction report that housing starts and building permits cooled in July.
Housing starts in the U.S. were at were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,155,000, missing the 1,225,000 forecast. They are 4.8% (±10.2%) below the revised June estimate of 1,213,000 and 5.6% (±8.5%) below the July 2016 rate of 1,223,000.
Building permits in the U.S. were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,223,000, 4.1% (±0.9%) below the revised June rate of 1,275,000. They are still 4.1% (±1.8%) above the July 2016 rate of 1,175,000.
Single-family authorizations in July were at a rate of 811,000; this is unchanged from the revised June figure of 811,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 377,000 in July.
Privately-owned housing completions came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,175,000, 6.2% (±14.3%) below the revised June estimate of 1,252,000. However, they are 8.2% (±12.6 percent) higher than the July 2016 rate of 1,086,000.
