US new-home construction fell in June for a second month as a decline in apartment building outweighed a pickup in single-family projects, as ITTO reported.
Residential starts declined 0.9% to a 1.25 million annualised rate, the slowest in three months, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Permits, a proxy for future construction, dropped 6.1% to a 1.22 million rate, also reflecting a slump in applications to build multifamily units.
Two of four US regions posted an increase in housing starts last month led by a 31% rise in the Northeast and a 27% advance in the Midwest. New construction declined 9% in the South and almost 5% in the West.
At the same time existing-home sales weakened as total sales recorded a small decline after a previous month of gains, according to the National Association of Realtors. While two of the four major US regions recorded minor sales jumps, the other two – the South and the West – experienced greater declines in June.
Total existing-home sales dropped 1.7% from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.27 million in June. Sales as a whole are down 2.2% from a year ago (5.39 million in June 2018).
