USA Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — Housing starts slid 3.3% in May to their lowest level in more than 17 years, while permits for future construction also fell, signaling more weakness ahead for the battered housing sector.
The Commerce Department said Tuesday that housing starts fell to an annual pace of 975,000 units in May, lowest since March 1991. Economists polled before the report were expecting a 980,000-unit rate. April’s figure was revised down to 1.008 million from the 1.032 million originally reported.
Building permits fell to an annual rate of 969,000, slightly higher than the 960,000 expected by economists.
The housing market has been battered for months by failing mortgages and uncertainty about when the sector might recover. Across the regions, there were some mixed signals about the health of housing.
The Northeast saw a 61.5% jump in May housing starts from the previous month while the region set a record low level of housing permits in single-family homes.
Starts were off in all other regions with building down 25% in the Midwest, 10.3% in the West and 4.4% in the South.
