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U.S. housing starts plunge in February

Xinhua, March 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

The U.S. Department of Commerce said on Tuesday that U.S. privately-owned housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 897,000 in February, plunging 17 percent from the revised January estimate and down 3.3 percent from a year ago.

Single-family housing starts in February were at a rate of 593,000, sharply down 14.9 percent from the revised January figure.

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits, a gauge of future construction, were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,092,000, an increase of 3 percent from the revised January rate.

There has been a lot of volatility in housing data in recent months, indicating the property market recovery is unstable.

The Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said in her testimony to the Congress in February that the housing construction continued to lag, and activities remained well below levels that could be supported in the longer run by population growth and the likely rate of household formation. Endi