U.S. Housing Starts Unexpectedly Show Sharp Drop In June

(RTTNews) - New residential construction in the U.S. unexpectedly showed a steep drop in the month of June, the Commerce Department revealed in a report on Thursday, with housing starts falling to a nine-month low.

The Commerce Department said housing starts tumbled 9.3 percent to an annual rate of 893,000 in June from the revised May estimate of 985,000.

The sharp drop came as a surprise to economists, who had expected housing starts to climb to 1.020 million from the 1.001 million originally reported for the previous month.

Building permits, an indicator future housing demand, also fell 4.2 percent to an annual rate of 963,000 in June from the revised May rate of 1.005 million.