Washington, DC, September 20, 2005—Housing starts were off 1.3% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.009 million units, according to the Commerce Department.
Economists were expecting a decline to 2.03 million from 2.042 million in July.
New construction of single-family homes rose 0.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.709 million.
Building permits were down 2.2% from July's 2.171 million pace.
The Commerce Department said the effects from Hurricane Katrina were minimal and the hurricane impacted construction activity only for the last few days of the month.
Regionally, home construction fell 4.1% in the Northeast, 6.6% in the South, and 5.2% in the Midwest. Starts climbed 13.3% to 561,000 in the West.
