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US August housing starts fall 6.2% to an 895,000 unit rate, lowest since 1991
WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - Housing starts and building permits dropped more than expected in August to levels not seen in more than 17 years, a sign that the housing market has yet to bottom out, the Commerce Department said today. Commerce said US August housing starts fell 6.2% to an 895,000 annual rate, the lowest since January 1991. Economists polled by Thomson's IFR Markets were expecting starts to drop to an annual rate of 950,000 from the downwardly revised 954,000 starts in July. Commerce originally reported a annualized rate of 965,000 housing starts in July. Housing starts are down 33.1% from August 2007, the largest year-over-year decline since March. New construction of single-family homes, a better and more stable indicator of new home trends, fell 1.9% in the month to an annual rate of 630,000, the lowest rate since January 1991. Starts of homes for two or more families fell 15.1% in the month to an annual rate of 265,000. By region, starts in the Northeast fell 14.5%, and fell 13.6% in the Midwest. Starts fell only 7.4% in the South, and rose 10.8% in the West. Building permits for new home starts in August were down 8.9% to an annual rate of 854,000 units from the unrevised 937,000 reported in July. Economists were expecting a 920,000 annual rate for building permits in August. Single-family permits fell 5.1% to 554,000 annual units, the lowest rate since August 1982, while multi-family permits fell 15.0% to 300,000 annual units, the lowest rate since August 1982. Homes still under construction fell 0.9% overall, and fell 1.4% for single-family homes to a level not seen since August 1992. The number of homes completed in the month fell 9.8%, and single-family homes completed fell 17.0%, the largest decline since September 1980. [email][email protected][/email] pik/wash/ak COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.