Washington, DC, Mar. 17--Home building in the U.S. slowed in February for a second month in a row but remained at strong levels.
The Commerce Department said housing starts declined 4% from January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.86 million. But starts were still up 13% from the year-earlier rate. Economists and homebuilders said they are optimistic that 2004 will be another strong year for housing, largely because the recent declines in interest rates have encouraged more people to buy houses.
The latest figure fell short of the Wall Street consensus forecast calling for a rise of about 1% in February from a month earlier.
The government said starts in January declined 6.3% from December, less than the previous estimate of a 7.9% decrease.
February's drop left starts at their lowest level since August. It was also nearly 10% below December's record rate of 2.051 million units, the highest level in nearly 20 years.
The February report on home construction showed building permits, an indicator of future building activity, fell 1.5% to a 1.90 million annual rate. Single-family starts decreased 4.1% to a 1.49 million rate. New construction on multifamily projects, or apartment buildings and town homes, also fell 4%.
The pace of construction varied widely from region to region. Starts jumped 25% in the Northeast and rose 7.1% in the Midwest, but dropped 11% in the South and 7.5% in the West.
