Housing Starts Fall in October
Housing starts dropped in October to a 519,000 annual rate, down 12 percent from the revised September estimate of 588,000, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

Construction on single-family homes declined 1.1 percent, while work on multifamily units fell 44 percent. Building permits, a sign of future activity, rose 0.5 percent to a 550,000 rate from 547,000 in September.

“Starts are a reminder of just how miserable the situation is in housing,” says Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial in New York. “Sales have been so weak for so long that we continue to see starts bouncing along the bottom.”

Source: Bloomberg, Courtney Schlisserman (11/17/2011)