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Housing starts are down nationwide in August.

According to , housing starts across the country declined five percent in August. The department has calculated a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000 units for new construction residential units at the end of August.

The major hit came from multifamily starts, which declined 13.5 percent in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 154,000 units. Conversely, single-family starts only declined by 1.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 417,000 units.

鈥淭oday鈥檚 numbers are completely consistent with the (National Association of Home Builder鈥檚) forecast for the quarter, and are in keeping with the anemic economic and job growth we are seeing across most of the country,鈥� said Robert Denk, a senior economist with NAHB, in a statement on the numbers.

Regionally, the Midwest and the West saw gains in housing starts, rising 2.6 and 2.2 percent respectively. The Northeast posted a 29.1 percent decline, followed by the South with a 3.3 percent decline.

Building permits, which are an indicator of future housing starts, rose 3.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 620,000 units in August, their highest level since last December. Single-family building permits rose 2.5 percent, while multifamily permits rose 4.5 percent.