New US home construction retreated in June after surging a month earlier, to a pace that indicates builders are working to fill the void left by lean housing inventory in the resale market.

Residential starts fell 8% last month to a 1.43 million annualized rate, according to government data released Wednesday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for a 1.48 million pace.

Applications to build, a proxy for future construction, slipped 3.7% to an annualized pace of 1.44 million units. However, permits to build single-family houses increased to a one-year high.

Source: Bloomberg