Housing starts climbed 3% to 1.353 million units in June, according to Reuters. Economists had expected starts to rebound to a rate of 1.300 million units.
Applications for building permits, a good indication of future activity, rose 3.4% to 1.446 million units in June.
Single-family housing starts fell 2.2% to a rate of 980,000 units. Multifamily starts soared 22% to a rate of 360,000 units. Building permits for single-family homes fell 2.3% to a rate of 934,000 units, and permits for multifamily homes surged 19.2% to a rate of 460,000 units.
The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage has continued to pull back after exceeding 7% again in April and May; it averaged 6.89% during the week of July 8.
