Economists keep predicting a fall in U.S. housing starts, perhaps in hope their prophecy of a bursting bubble will be self-fulfilling. But reality defied the predictions last month, with housing starts for privately owned residences rising 3.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.108 million instead of the 1.5% decrease to 1.98 million units economists generally were forecasting.
Starts for single-family residences were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.747 million in September, 2.6% higher than the revised August rate of 1.703 million, the U.S. Commerce Department and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly reported on October 19. The September rate for housing in buildings with five or more units was 303,000, an increase of 2.7% from August's revised rate of 295,000.
