New construction of US homes slowed modestly in December from the previous month, but capped a year of solid growth overall for the building sector, official data showed Wednesday.

The Commerce Department reported housing starts slipped by 30,000 units to an annual rate of 1.149 million units in December, with the fall roughly similar in both single-family and multi-family homes.

For the year, housing starts rose 6.4 percent, and a total of about 966,000 new homes were completed, up 9.3 percent from 2014.

Building permits issued fell also in December but were up 14.4 percent for the year, suggesting solid momentum for the sector going into 2016.