The rate of new
US home-building rose in July, spurred on by a rise in the construction of new
apartments.
The Commerce Department said new-home construction climbed by 5.9% from the prior month.
The annual rate was 896,000 new homes, below a recent peak of just over 1 million in March.
The rate of new single-family houses being built dropped by 2.2% - a sign that builders could be worried about rising mortgage rates.
Permits to build new homes rose 2.7% but missed analysts' expectations.
The rate for a 30-year mortgage was 4.4% in July - a full percentage point higher than it had been in May, before the US Federal Reserve started hinting that it might begin to slow down its extraordinary efforts to prop up the US economy.
A spate of mixed economic data since then - including news that the US economy grew by 1.7% in the second quarter - has tempered fears of an end to stimulus.
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