US homebuilding hit by weather, higher mortgage rates

STORY: U.S. single-family homebuilding dropped to a near one-and-a-half year low in July.

That’s according to data released on Friday by the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau.

It was the fifth straight monthly decline, suggesting the housing market remained depressed at the start of the third quarter.

Single-family housing starts fell 14% nationwide.

The overall decline was weighed down by the densely populated South, where Hurricane Beryl disrupted homebuilding early in the month.

Housing starts also plummeted in the Northeast and slipped a bit in the West, but increased in the Midwest.

Aside from the weather, the housing market remains constrained by higher mortgage rates and house prices.

Mortgage rates have since retreated amid optimism the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next month.

But an oversupply of new inventory – to levels not seen since early 2008 – could limit any rebound in homebuilding.