By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- The U.S. housing market weakened again in September as the effect of the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes bit increasingly hard.
The number of housing starts fell by 8.1% on the month to 1.439 milllion, reversing a surprise increase in August. They're now down 7.7% on the year.
Single-family starts fell 4.7% on the month, continuing their steady decline, while multi-family starts largely reversed their spike in August, falling 13%.
By contrast, the number of building permits issued ticked up surprisingly by 1.4% to 1.564 million.
Both data sets have been trending down all year as demand has normalized in the wake of the pandemic boom, fueled by rock-bottom interest rates and a desperate search for more space to accommodate remote working