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.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Economic News
What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
August 21, 2026 14:42 ET The minutes of the latest policy meeting of the Federal Reserve, housing market data and manufacturing sector survey results were the main news for the U.S. economy this week. In Europe, inflation data from the U.K. was the highlight, while consumer price data from Japan drew attention in Asia.