Apartment construction in the Northeast fueled a jump in home building in July as the pace of housing starts nationwide reached the strongest pace in six months. The rate of overall construction rose 2.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.21 million from 1.19 million in June, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Most of the gain came from an 8.3 percent acceleration in the construction of multi-family buildings. Still, future gains may be limited because current housing starts are outpacing permits to build in the future. Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, expects permits to increase in response to the gains in housing starts.

Source: ABC News August 16, 2016 12:34 UTC