The Commerce Department reported recently that housing starts dropped 11.4 percent in October from September, which had hit a 16-year high.
By region, in the Northeast, housing construction in October fell 18.8 percent from the previous month to a rate of 143,000. In the Midwest, construction dropped by 19.5 percent to a rate of 301,000, and in the South
the number of housing projects underway went down by 14.3 percent to a rate
of 701,000.