Groundbreaking for new U.S. single-family homes and permits for future construction rose in July even as high mortgage rates and economic uncertainty continued to hamper home purchases.
Single-family housing starts, which account for the bulk of homebuilding, increased 2.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 939,000 units last month, the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau said on Tuesday. Permits for future single-family homebuilding edged up 0.5% to a rate of 870,000 units.
Overall residential project starts, including apartments, jumped 5.2% to a rate of 1.428 million units and permit issuance fell 2.8% to 1.354 million units. Economists polled by Reuters had estimated housing starts at 1.290 million and permits at 1.386 million.
President Donald Trump’s sweeping import tariffs have kept the Federal Reserve from lowering interest rates this year, with most central bank policymakers wary of easing borrowing costs until they have more confidence the levies will not rekindle inflation, which has yet to return to the Fed’s 2% target.
Recent indications of softening in the job market, however, have largely convinced investors that the Fed will cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point when it meets in mid-September, and that expectation has helped bring down mortgage rates in recent weeks.