Mubasher: The US Census Bureau, the US Department of Housing, the Urban Development on Wednesday jointly released residential construction statistics for June.

Privately-owned housing starts came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.253 million starts last June, which is 0.9% lower than the revised May estimate of 1.265 million, but 6.2% above the rate of 1.180 million seen in the comparable month of the previous year, according to the official data.

Privately-owned housing units authorised under building permits dropped by 6.1% last month to an adjusted annual rate of 1.220 million, compared with the prior month’s revised 1.299 million.

Privately-owned housing completions fell by 4.8% to an adjusted annual rate of 1.161 million completions during last June, from the revised estimate of 1.220 million in the preceding month, and 3.7% up from 1.205 million a year ago.

Single-family housing starts totalled 847,000 during the month, which was 3.5% month-on-month higher.

Permits for single-family housing units ticked up by 0.4% month-on-month to 813,000 permits last June, while authorisations for five-or-more unit buildings recorded 360,000, the report showed.

Completed single-family housing units declined by 1.8% to 870,000 units last month, compared with the previous month when they recorded a revised total of 886,000.

By 12:34 pm GMT, the US dollar index inched down by 0.08% to 97.32.