Dow Jones
Overall US home building rose in July, though a drop in starts on single-family homes suggests greater hurdles facing home builders.
Overall US housing starts rose 5.9 per cent in July from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 896,000 units, the Commerce Department said Friday. Construction of multifamily units, including apartments, rose 26 per cent, while starts on single-family units declined 2.2 per cent.
Compared with a year earlier, overall starts were up 20.9 per cent.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast that overall housing starts would rise 8.9 per cent.
The report offered a mixed picture on housing. Overall home construction has risen for two of the past three months, potentially indicating a stronger housing market and boosting the economy. However, the rise has largely been due to strength in the multifamily sector, a volatile category that can obscure underlying demand.
Construction of single-family homes--considered a more reliable category--remains less than robust. Starts on single-family homes numbered 591,000 in July, the lowest level since November. That suggests that, while home sales remain strong, builders are cautious about building or being held back by other factors, such as a lack of land to develop.
Also, higher mortgage interest rates have raised questions about future demand for housing. Mortgage rates are running higher from the spring but have levelled off recently. The average interest rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is hovering near 4.40 per cent this week, the same as last week but nearly a percentage point above April's level.
In an indication of future construction, the number of new housing permits increased by 2.7 per cent to annualized level of 943,000 in July. Economists had forecast a rate of 945,000 for new permits.
The report follows others suggesting the housing market remains strong. Thursday, the National Association of Home Builders, an industry trade group, said home builders' confidence in the market rose this month to the highest level in nearly eight years.
The Commerce report can be found at http://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/pdf/newresconst.pdf