Washington, DC, March 16, 2006--According to a report from the Commerce Department, housing starts fell 7.9% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.042 million housing starts.
Starts in January, which were initially reported as having risen 14.5%, were revised up to 15.8% to a level of 2.30 million units. That revised level was the highest rate for seasonally adjusted starts insince March 1973.
Economists were expecting starts to fall to a level of to 2.04 million units.
Building permits in February were off fell 3.2% last month to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 2.15 million.
Permits for single-family homes fell 3% to a 1.64 million annual rate. During the month starts fell in all regions.
