US housing starts fall 0.8% in March

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - US housing starts fell 0.8% in March, according to official data released on Tuesday.

Housing starts, which measure the change in the number of new residential buildings beginning construction, stood at 1.42 million last month, the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development said.

The figure came against the market expectation of a 0.4% increase, while the figure for February was revised down to a 7.3% increase, from 9.8%.

Building permits, a key indicator of demand in the market, plummeted 8.8% to 1.41 million this March.

It declined much more than the market estimate of a 6% fall, while the figure for February was revised up to a gain of 15.8%, from a 13.8% increase.