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

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Privately-owned housing starts in the United States dropped to a near two-year low in March, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Friday.

Privately-owned housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.139 million in March, down 0.3 percent from the downwardly revised rate in February of 1.142 million, according to the department's newly released data.

On a year-on-year basis, housing starts in March tumbled 14.2 percent compared with the figure a year ago.

Single-family housing starts dropped 0.4 percent month-on-month in March to 785,000.

Privately-owned housing completions in March were 1.9 percent below the February estimate to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.313 million.