16.04.201409:38:00UTC+00U.S. Housing Starts Rise Less Than Expected In March

Housing starts in the U.S. showed a notable increase in the month of March, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, although starts still came in well below analyst estimates.

The report showed that housing starts climbed 2.8 percent to an annual rate of 946,000 in March from the revised February estimate of 920,000.

Economists had been expecting housing starts to surge up to an annual rate of 970,000 from the 907,000 originally reported for the previous month.