May Housing Starts Down Unexpectedly By 6.5%

Housing starts fell unexpectedly by 6.5 percent in May to 1.001 million, compared with 3.7 percent expected by economists.

The decline was the first in four months, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

Approved building permits in May fell 6.4 percent in May to 991,000 although single-family permits in May rose 3.7 percent from the revised April figure of 597,000.

In pre-market trading, KB Home KBH and Toll Brothers TOL were each down by nearly one percentage point.

The exchange-traded fund S&P Home Builders XHB and D.R. Horton DHI were nearly unchanged.