The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Wednesday morning that new housing starts in January 2015 slipped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.065 million, a decrease of 2% from the downwardly revised December rate of 1.087 million and an increase of 18.7% compared with the January 2014 rate of 897,000. The consensus estimate from a survey of economists expected a rate of around 1.070 million.

The revision to the December rate totaled 2,000 fewer new housing starts.

The seasonally adjusted rate of new building permits also slipped in January to 1.053 million, down 0.7% from the upwardly revised December rate of 1.060 million and 8.1% above the January 2014 rate of 974,000. The consensus estimate called for 1.070 million new permits.

Single-family housing starts fell to an annualized rate of 678,000 in January, down 6.7% from the downwardly revised December rate of 727,000.

Permits for new single-family homes fell 3.1% in January to an adjusted annual rate of 654,000 from an upwardly revised total of 675,000 in December.

Multifamily starts, for buildings with five or more units, a more volatile number than single-family starts, rose 18.2% year-over-year in January and dropped 5.9% compared with December 2014.

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