India, Aug. 19 -- A report released by the Commerce Department on Tuesday unexpectedly showed a sharp increase by new residential construction in the U.S. in the month of July.
The Commerce Department said housing starts shot up by 5.2 percent to an annual rate of 1.428 million in July after spiking by 5.9 percent to an upwardly revised rate of 1.358 million in June.
Economists had expected housing starts to slump by 2.4 percent to an annual rate of 1.290 million from the 1.321 million originally reported for the previous month.
Multi-family starts led the way higher once again, soaring by 9.9 percent to an annual rate of 489,000 in July after skyrocketing by 33.6 percent to an annual rate of 445,000 in June.
The report said single-fami...