U.S. housing starts off 11 percent in July

Washington -- Privately owned housing starts fell 11 percent in the United States in July, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of 965,000 starts was well below the revised June rate of 1,084,000 starts and 29.6 percent below July 2007, when 1,371,000 homes were started, the report said.

Building permits issued in July were 17.7 percent below June's revised rate of 1,138,000 permits issued and 32.4 percent below July 2007, when 1,386,000 permits were issued, the report said.

Housing completions also fell in July.

In the month, 1,035,000 privately owned homes were completed, an 8.7 percent drop from June's 1,134,000 completions.

Single-family completions fell 7.2 percent to an estimated 791,000, the report said, while multi-unit completions for homes with five or more units came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 229,000.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.