The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development reported Wednesday morning that new housing starts in May slipped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.00 million, a decrease of 6.5% from the revised April rate of 1.07 million and an increase of 9.4% compared with the May 2013 rate of 915,000. The consensus estimate from a survey of economists expected a rate of around 1.04 million.

The seasonally adjusted rate of new building permits fell to 991,000, which is 6.4% below the downwardly revised April rate of 1.06 million and 1.9% below the May 2013 rate of 1.01 million. The consensus estimate called for 1.06 million new permits.

Single-family housing starts fell to an annualized rate of 625,000 in May, down 5.9% from the revised April rate of 664,000.

Permits for new single-family homes rose 3.7% in May, to an adjusted annual rate of 619,000, from a downwardly revised total of 597,000 in April.

Multifamily starts, for buildings with five or more units, a more volatile number than single-family starts, rose 19.2% year-over-year in May.

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