The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Wednesday morning that new housing starts in February slipped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 907,000, a decrease of 0.2% from the upwardly revised January rate of 909,000 and a drop of 6.4% compared with the February 2013 rate of 969,000. The consensus estimate from a survey of economists expected a rate of around 910,000.

The seasonally adjusted rate of new building permits rose to 1.02 million, which is 7.7% above the downwardly revised January rate of 945,000, but it is 6.9% higher than the February 2013 rate of 952,000. The consensus estimate called for 960,000 new permits.

Single-family housing starts rose to an annualized rate of 583,000 in February, up 0.3% from the revised January rate of 581,000.

Permits for new single-family homes fell 1.8% in February, to an adjusted annual rate of 588,000, from a downwardly revised total of 599,000 in January.

The number of housing starts for January was revised sharply upward, from an original estimate of 880,000 to 909,000. That makes the February showing look a little better. Multifamily starts for buildings with two to four units, a more volatile number than single-family starts, also decreased slightly in February. The multifamily starts for units of five or more was up 27.6% over January and up 26.8% compared with February 2013.

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