India, June 18 -- The Commerce Department released a report on Wednesday showing a steep drop by new residential construction in the U.S. in the month of May.
The report said housing starts plunged by 9.8 percent to an annual rate of 1.256 million in May after jumping by 2.7 percent to a revised rate of 1.392 million in April.
Economists had expected housing starts to edge down to an annual rate of 1.360 million from the 1.361 million originally reported for the previous month.
The much bigger than expected decrease by housing starts largely reflected a nosedive by multi-family housing starts, which plummeted by almost 30 percent to an annual rate of 332,000.
On the other hand, the Commerce Department said single-family housing starts r...