October saw a drop in the number of homes whose construction started in the United States, reaching the lowest level since the outbreak of the pandemic, as construction companies partially scaled back their operations due to higher building costs and rising mortgage interest rates.
The annualized total number of such homes fell by 4.6% to 1.25 million units, below expectations that pointed to an annual rate of 1.33 million units.
By contrast, the number of single-family homes that broke ground rose by 5.4% to an annual rate of 874,000 homes, but it remained near its lowest levels over the past two years.
