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Housing starts up 4.8 pct.
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July 17, 1997: 9:55 a.m. ET
New construction on homes in June rose to 1.45 million annual rate
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - New construction on the nation's homes and apartments saw a modest rise in June, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Thursday.
Housing starts were up 4.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.45 million homes for the month. Commerce also revised its May figures, saying starts had dropped 6.6 percent to 1.39 million. The earlier figure was 4.8 percent.
Applications for new building permits, an indicator of future construction growth, fell 2.6 percent to an annual rate of 1.40 million. It is the third straight month permits have declined.
Single-family home starts were up 2.6 percent in June to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 1.1 million. In May, those home starts were off 4.5 percent.
Apartment building starts rose 12.9 percent to an annual rate of 342,000, just about the same as the previous month's 13.4 percent gain.
Across the nation, the South's housing starts leapt 11.2 percent to a rate of 683,000, far outstripping other regions. In the West, starts were up only 1.1 percent to 362,000 and in the Midwest new construction rose 0.7 percent to a 294,000 rate.
The Northeast region posted the only decline, falling 6.6 percent to 113,000.
-- Randy Schultz
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