The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Thursday morning that new housing starts in August rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.126 million. That was a decrease of 3% from the downwardly revised July rate of 1.161 million and an increase of 16.6% compared with the August 2014 rate of 966,000. The consensus estimate from a survey of economists expected a rate of around 1.168 million.

The revision to the July rate cut 45,000 new housing starts from the previously reported total.

The seasonally adjusted rate of new building permits rose in August to 1.170 million, up 3.5% from the downwardly revised July rate of 1.130 million, but 12.5% above the July 2014 rate of 1.04 million. The consensus estimate called for 1.160 million new building permits.

Single-family housing starts slipped to an annualized rate of 739,000 in August, down 3% from the revised July rate of 762,000.

Permits for new single-family homes rose 2.8% year over year in August to an adjusted annual rate of 699,000, but down from a revised total of 680,000 in July.

Multifamily starts for buildings with five or more units, a more volatile number than single-family starts, rose by 24.5% year over year in August and slipped by 2.3% compared with July.

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