Photo by JIM WATSON / AFP via Getty Images
The numbers: Construction on new U.S. homes fell a seasonally adjusted 4.5% in January to 1.31 million, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
The drop in construction on homes follows the decline in December, when housing starts also fell by 3.4%
The drop was larger than what Wall Street expected. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal expected housing starts to drop to a 1.35 million rate from December’s initial estimate of 1.38 million.
Construction is at the lowest level since June 2020, during the depths of the coronavirus pandemic. Starts have also fallen for the fifth month in a row.