Housing starts fall 8% despite other signs of a warming housing market

The number of housing starts declined in June, an indication there are still some challenges in a housing market that has shown signs of heating up in recent months after being battered by the Federal Reserve's rate hikes.

Housing starts measure the change in the number of new residential buildings that began construction. Starts fell 8% from May to this past month, according to a Wednesday report from the Census Bureau. They are now at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.43 million. From May 2022, they fell 8.1%.