Housing Starts Drop 5.3 Percent in June

Housing Starts Drop 5.3 Percent in June
(Washington - July 19, 2006) - Total housing starts dropped 5.3 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.850 million units, according to figures released by the Commerce Department today. This was 11.0 percent below the pace of a year ago.
Single-family housing starts were down 6.5 percent for the month to a pace of 1.486 million units, a 13.8 percent drop from the June 2005 pace. Multifamily housing construction was up 0.3 percent for the month to a seasonally adjusted pace of 364,000 units.
'NAHB's surveys of single-family builders have been showing a steady decline in confidence since the middle of last year, and builders are acting accordingly. They are slowing their production as market conditions and demand cool down,' said David Pressly, president of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Statesville, N.C. "