Housing Starts Tumble in November After Rise

Housing starts fell 4.7% in November after rising 13% a month earlier, the government reported today.

The Commerce Department said new homes and apartments were built at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.36 million units last month, down from a revised 1.43 million units in October.

The October increase was the largest since December, 1986. Starts had fallen 4.9% in September.

The report was fresh evidence of the sluggishness in the housing industry. Construction has been one of the economic sectors slowed by high interest rates resulting from the Federal Reserve’s grip on credit as it strives to curtail inflation.

In addition to its effect on construction jobs and the building materials industries, the housing industry has an impact on other related industries, such as home appliances and furnishings.

Interest rates ranged from 9.82% to 9.74% in November, according to surveys by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. Total housing starts during the first 11 months of the year were down 6.5% from the same period of 1988.

Construction of single-family homes in November dropped 0.9% to an annual rate of 1.02 million units. Single-family starts had risen 5.5% in October.

Apartment construction fell 14.4% in November to an annual rate of 346,000 units after jumping 37.9% in October. It had fallen 13.6% in September.

The South had the steepest decline, down 11.3%, after rising 14.8% in October. Starts in the West also fell, down 5.3%. Starts increased 3.7% in the Midwest and 3.3% in the Northeast.

Applications for building permits, a barometer of future housing activity, edged down 1.7% after rising 2.8% in October.