Housing Starts Get Tripped Up in July

Home-building activity unexpectedly tripped up in July, with housing starts down 4.8 percent to a rate of 1,155,000, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Single-family housing starts decreased 0.5 percent to 856,000. Starts for units in buildings with five units or more came in at 287,000.
Permits also tumbled, down 4.1 percent from June to 1,223,000, according to the data. Single-family permits were the same as in Ju