India, April 19 -- A report released by the Commerce Department on Friday unexpectedly showed a modest decrease in new residential construction in the U.S. in the month of March.
The Commerce Department said housing starts dipped by 0.3 percent to an annual rate of 1.139 million in March from the revised February estimate of 1.142 million.
The drop came as a surprise to economists, who had expected housing starts to surge up by 5.9 percent to a rate of 1.230 million from the 1.162 million originally reported for the previous month.
Single-family housing starts fell by 0.4 percent to a rate of 785,000, while multi-family starts were unchanged at a rate of 354,000.
The report said building permits also tumbled by 1.7 percent to an annual ...