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U.S. housing starts fall
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November 19, 2001: 10:00 a.m. ET
Starts still beat forecasts in October; building permits hit 4-year low.
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Housing starts fell slightly in the United States last month, the government said Monday, but building permits, a sign of builders' confidence in the economy, tumbled to the lowest rate in nearly four years.
Builders broke ground on new homes and apartments at a 1.55 million annual rate in October, down from the revised 1.57 million rate in September, the Commerce Department said. The lower number still topped Wall Street forecasts for a rate of about 1.52 million, according to economists' surveyed by Briefing.com.
Building permits slipped to a 1.47 million annual rate in October from September's 1.52 million, the department reported. It was the lowest reading since December 1997, and came in below forecasts for 1.49 million.
While the U.S. economy has slowed appreciably since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, lower mortgage interest rates have helped to support the housing market during that time. New home construction is an important component of the economy, as it drives purchases of appliances, furniture and other big-ticket items.
The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates 10 times so far this year in a bid to prop up the ailing economy, which some forecasters say may already be in a recession.
On Wall Street, stocks started higher after the report while bonds posted small gains after falling sharply last week.
In its report, the department said permits for single-family homes fell 2.1 percent last month compared with a 3.6 percent decline in permits overall, while single-family housing starts slipped 1.2 percent versus a 1.6 percent decline for starts of multi-family units.
The department said it may be too soon to gauge the full impact of the Sept. 11 attack on the housing data because of the lead-time that goes into housing construction. It said it can take three months to establish an underlying trend in building permits and five months to establish a trend for housing starts. 
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