U.S. Housing Starts Fall Much More Than Expected In February

New residential construction in the U.S. showed a substantial decrease in the month of February, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday. 

The report said housing starts plummeted by 17.0 percent to an annual rate of 897,000 in February from the revised January estimate of 1.081 million. 

Economists had been expecting housing starts to dip to 1.048 million from the 1.065 million originally reported for the previous month. 

On the other hand, the report said building permits climbed 3.0 percent to an annual rate of 1.092 million in February from the revised January rate of 1.060 million. 

Building permits, an indicator of future housing demand, had been expected to inch up to 1.058 million from the 1.053 million originally reported for January.