New Construction Homes Jump 3.6% in June

There’s some unexpected news from the housing front: New residential construction in the U.S. rose 3.6 percent last month, to an annual adjusted rate of 582,000. That’s up from the revised May estimate of 562,000, but still well below June 2008, when the rate was a little more than 1 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The gain came in single-family construction, which was up 14.4 percent. Multifamily starts, however, fell 25.8 percent.

Building permits were up 8.7 percent, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 563,000 from May’s rate of 518,000, but still down 52 percent from June 2008, when it was 1.1 million.

Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development