October real estate housing start permits fall 4.5%

Construction starts on new U.S. homes fell to a record low in October, as did new applications for building permits, a report by the Commerce Department showed on Wednesday, signaling that the national housing downturn may extend well into the future.

Housing starts fell 4.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 791,000 units from September’s 828,000 units.

New applications for building permits, which give a sense of future home construction, plummeted 12 percent to 708,000 from 805,000 in September.

Source: Reuters