Housing starts, a measure of U.S. homebuilding, decreased by 10.3% in February.
Housing market under pressure from the COVID impact
Provided by Dow Jones Mar 17, 2021 12:56 PM GMT
By Xavier Fontdegloria Construction of new homes in the U.S. decreased in February for the second consecutive month amid harsh weather across the country, data from the Commerce Department showed Wednesday. Here are the main takeaways from the report:
--Housing starts, a measure of U.S. homebuilding, decreased by 10.3% in February compared with January, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.421 million. This is well below the consensus forecast from The Wall Street Journal poll of economists, who expected starts to decline by 2.5%, to an annual pace of 1.54 million.
--The current level of starts is 9.3% below compared with the same month a year earlier
--In January, housing starts amounted to an upwardly revised 1.584 million from an earlier estimate of 1.580 million.
--Monthly housing starts data are volatile and are often revised. February data came with a margin of error of 10.5 percentage points.
--Residential permits, which can be a bellwether for future home construction, decreased by 10.8% in February, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.682 million. The figure compares with economists' forecasts of a 7% drop to an annual pace of 1.75 million.
--U.S. housing starts report for February compares with March's indicator compiled by the National Association of Homebuilders, which showed a slight decline of confidence in the single-family housing market, signaling a more downbeat outlook but still at robust levels. Write to Xavier Fontdegloria at xavier.fontdegloria@wsj.com Dow Jones Newswires March 17, 2021 08:56 ET (12:56 GMT) Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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