Housing Starts Rise to Nine-Month High

U.S. housing starts rose 1.5% to a nine-month high in August, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

Starts rose to an annual rate of 598,000 units, matching economists’ projections, Bloomberg reported.

Building permits, an indicator of new construction, rose 2.7% to a 579,000 annual rate.

Single-family home starts, which account for about 85% of the industry, fell 3% to a 479,000 annual rate, the first downturn since January.

Work on multifamily units jumped 25% to a 119,000 rate.

Starts jumped 24% in the Northeast, 0.9% in the Midwest, fell 2.4% in the South and were flat in the West, Commerce said.