U.S. Housing Starts Fell 7.9% in January to 1.903 Million Rate
Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. housing starts fell to a 1.903 million-unit annual rate last month, a government report showed, as colder weather and storms restrained building in some parts of the country.
The January pace follows a December rate of 2.067 million, which was the fastest since February 1984, the Commerce Department said in Washington.
Snowstorms and below-normal temperatures slowed construction by companies such as Hovnanian Enterprises Inc, the eighth-largest U.S. homebuilder by stock market value. Borrowing costs near historic lows helped push housing starts last year to their highest level since 1978, and economists said faster economic growth this year may sustain housing sales. The annual pace of housing starts last month still exceeds last year's total of 1.848 million.
``Housing starts retreated from their highest level of the last 20 years,'' Steven A. Wood, principal economist at Insight Economics inc. in Danville, California, said before the report. ``Bitter winter weather in some parts of the country froze many construction plans.''
Economists had expected starts to slip to 2 million homes at an annual pace from the previously reported 2.088 million rate in December, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.
|
Thread abonnieren
