Housing starts fall again in January

For the second month in a row, the number of new homes under construction in the United States fell unexpectedly.

New U.S. home construction starts dropped 3.8% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of roughly 1.09 million homes from last month's revised rate of 1.14 million, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Rough winter weather drove down the number of homes under construction in the Northeast and Midwest by 3.7% and 12.8%, respectively. Home construction in the South fell 2.9%, while construction in the West remained relatively unchanged.

The recent slide in housing starts has caught some analysts by surprise. Economists surveyed by Action Economics expected new housing starts to rise 1.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.17 million. Last month, economists expected an increase of 2.1%, but instead saw a decline of 2.5%. Still, housing starts are up 1.8% from this time last year, and 2015 was the strongest year for home construction since 2007.

Building permits for privately-owned housing units in January fell slightly, down 0.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.20 million. Single-family permits fell 1.6% to 732,000.

Privately-owned housing completions rose by 2.0% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.05 million, while single-family housing completions fell 1.4% to 693,000.