U.S. privately-owned housing starts tick down in February

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Privately-owned housing starts in the United States dropped in February, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Tuesday.

Privately-owned housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.162 million in February, down 8.7 percent from the revised rate in January, according to the department's newly released data.

On a year-on-year basis, housing starts in February was 9.9 percent below the figure a year ago.

Single-family housing starts dropped 17 percent month-on-month in February to 805,000.

Privately-owned housing completions in February were 4.5 percent above the January estimate to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.303 million.