WASHINGTON: US housing starts and construction permits fell to 16-year lows in March, the government said on Wednesday, in a fresh sign of contraction in the troubled real estate market.

The Commerce Department said US March housing starts fell 11.9 percent to a 947,000 unit annual rate, down from an upwardly revised 1.075 million units in February. That pace was the lowest level since March 1991.

Economists' consensus forecast was for a more modest decline to 1.010 million units.

New construction of single-family homes, considered a more reliable indicator of new home trends, fell 5.7 percent to a 680,000-unit rate, the lowest since January 1991.

In the last 12 months, single-family starts were down 43.6 percent, which is the largest annual drop since the year ending January 1991.

Multi-family starts fell 24.7 percent to 247,000 annual units, continuing their volatile month-to-month pattern.

Housing starts dropped in all regions of the country. The sharpest drop was in the Midwest, where starts fell by 21.4 percent and single-family starts dropped to 94,000 units. Starts in the South plunged 12.6 percent.

Meanwhile, building permits for new homes in March fell 5.8 percent to 927,000 units, the lowest level since April 1991 and much weaker than economists' expectations of 970,000 units.

Single-family permits fell 6.2 percent to 606,000 units, the lowest level since January 1991.

In the last 12 months, building permits fell 40.9 percent, the largest 12-month drop in 16 years. Permits for single-family homes fell 46.4 percent in the last year, the largest annual drop in 26 years. - AFP/de