Housing Starts Tumble Unexpectedly

[papau]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=578&e=7&u=/nm/20040720/bs_nm/economy_dc

Housing Starts Tumble Unexpectedly

By Mark Felsenthal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. housing starts plunged unexpectedly in June to their lowest level in more than a year as rising interest rates slowed the hot housing market, a government report showed on Tuesday.

Permits, a sign of builder confidence in future demand, fell to their lowest level since February, posting the biggest monthly decline in more than ten years, the Commerce Department (news - web sites) said.

Homebuilders broke ground at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.802 million units last month, down 8.5 percent from an upwardly revised 1.970 million the previous month. It was the biggest drop since a 10.7 percent tumble in February 2003.

Analysts had been expecting starts to edge up to 1.99 million units.

In separate reports, chain store sales inched up last week, although cool weather and slow demand for summer goods continued to cut into business. <snip>

[tlcandie]

1. Part of the chain store thing is getting ready for back to school...

Clothes, backpacks, supplies, etc. I've noticed a lot of sales as well and people may be taking advantage of those.

[lovedems]

2. Cool weather and slow demand for summer goods cut into business?

Do they take into account that maybe people can't afford to buy summer goods? They must ignore the hidden unemployment numbers and inflation and just blame the weather. :shrug:

[Moderator]

3. Duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x697012