Housing Starts Fall in Latest Mixed News for Market
Housing starts fell 2% last month in a sign of the market recovery's fragility. A Commerce Department report yesterday noted that decreased demand for single-family homes contributed to the fall to a 1.07M annual rate, down from last December's 1.09M home start pace. A Bloomberg survey of 82 economists found a median prediction of 1.07M. The Midwest suffered a particularly startling decline of 22% compared to the prior month, while the South, with a 6.5% gain, was the only one of four regions to see improvement.
Earlier this week, a report showed homebuilder sentiment dipping for the second consecutive month.