AlQa'dah 23, 1435, Sep 18, 2014, SPA -- U.S. housing starts and permits fell in August, the government reported Thursday, but upward revisions to the previous month's data suggested the housing market continued to gradually improve. The Commerce Department said groundbreaking on new homes dropped 14.4 percent to a 956,000-unit annual pace. But July housing starts were revised upward to show a 1.12 million-unit annual rate, the highest level since late 2007. Housing starts for single-family homes—the largest part of the market—fell 2.4 percent last month to a 643,000-unit annual pace. The category jumped 11.1 percent in July. Starts for the volatile apartment segment plunged 31.7 percent to a 313,000-unit pace in August. Permits—a sign of future construction activity—fell 5.6 percent to a 998,000-unit annual pace in August. Economists expected a smaller decline. Permits for multi-family housing fell 12.7 percent to a 372,000-unit pace. Housing is slowly recovering after suffering a setback following a spike in mortgage rates last year. However, the sector remains constrained by a relatively high unemployment rate and strict lending standards by banks.