In another sign that the economy isn't out of the woods yet, housing starts fell 1% last month, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 581,000 in July, the Commerce Department reported today.

Last month's figures represent a 37% decline since July 2008.

Single-family housing starts were 1.7% below the June level. Single-family housing completions fell 3.3%.

Recommended For You

Building permits fell 1.8% from June's level, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000. That's 39.4% below that of July 2008.

The Northeast, South, and West had month-to-month declines of 16.3%, 1.4%, and 1.6%, respectively and the Midwest had an increase of 12.9%.

Year-to-year housing starts declined in all regions: 58.6% in the Northeast, 25.5% in the Midwest, 36.7% in the South and 31.9% in the West.

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.