After two straight months of increases home construction dropped a steep 14.3% in January. Reuters says the drop was worse than what most economists were expecting.
The pace of U.S. home construction fell 14.3% in January, sharpest drop since October and much worse than economists had expected, a government report on Friday showed.
The drop followed two months of increases.
The Commerce Department said housing starts clocked an annual pace of 1.408 million units in January compared with a 1.643 million pace in December. January's pace was the lowest in nearly 10 years.
Economists had forecast January housing starts to fall to a 1.60 million pace from December's originally reported 1.642 million units annual rate.
The housing market was considered last year's top business story by some. It is attracting a lot of early attention already this year.
