Off the wire
• Book documenting history of Tanzania Zambia Railway launched in Zambia  • Crude prices extend gains amid shrinking output  • U.S. dollar rises against most major currencies  • Top EU official congratulates new Austrian chancellor  • Zambia opposition party says to boycott general election  • Belgian prison workers hold demonstration in Brussels  • Roundup: "Secret" Harvard meeting on synthesizing human genome triggers debate  • Civil society organizations oppose Zambia's revised mineral royalty tax  • U.S. eases sanctions on Myanmar to support reform, facilitate trade  • Lille to sign Zambian defender Sunzu  
You are here: 　 Home

U.S. housing starts rise 6.6 pct in April

Xinhua, May 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

U.S. new home starts and building permits rebounded in April, a signal that housing market may gain some momentum after a sluggish first quarter.

The U.S. Department of Commerce said on Tuesday that U.S. privately-owned housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,172,000 in April, rising 6.6 percent from the revised March figure, but 1.7 percent lower than the year-ago level.

Single-family housing starts in April were at a rate of 691,000, 3.6 percent below the revised March figure.

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits, a gauge of future construction, were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,116,000, an increase of 3.6 percent from the revised March rate.

Sales of new single-family homes fell 1.5 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 511,000 in the United States, a third straight fall, said the U.S. Commerce Department last month.

Housing was a bright spot in the U.S. economy in 2015, contributing more than a quarter of a percentage point to gross domestic product growth. Endit