Washington, DC, November 17, 2005—Housing starts fell 5.6% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.014 million, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
Building permits during the month dropped 6.7% to 2.071 million annual units.
Building activity remained fairly robust in October, despite higher mortgage rates and waning consumer confidence.
In October, housing starts were the fewest since March, while building permits marked the lowest since May after hitting a 32-year high of 2.219 million in September.
Economists were looking for a smaller decline to about 2.07 million starts in October. September's housing starts were revised higher to 2.134 million from 2.108 million, the highest since February.
Starts of single-family homes fell 3.7% to a 1.704 million pace. Starts of multifamily homes sank 14.8% to 310,000. Construction on single-family homes has been relatively steady for the past six months, while the multifamily market has been volatile.
Starts fell in all four regions of the nation in October, led by the 10.8% decline in the West and 10.5% in the Midwest. Starts in the South fell 0.5%. Northeastern construction fell 7.5%.
