US residential construction grew by 2.6pc in July with 1.63 million permits approved, compared with 1.54 million permits issued in the same month last year.
Housing starts increased by 2.5pc to 1.53 million units in July on an annual basis. However, this figure was 7pc lower than 1.65 million units that broke ground in June. Last month, 1.39 million privately-owned housing units were completed, which was up in both annual and monthly comparisons, by 5.6pc and 3.8pc, respectively.
Meanwhile, single-family housing sales declined by 27.2pc to 708,000 units in July, compared with the same month in 2020. However, this figure increased by 1pc over June. New houses for sale (national inventory) stood at 367,000 units.