August Starts Dip 19%

Housing starts in August slipped 19.1% from the same month last year to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.33 million units, according to the Census Bureau, with single family starts down 27.1% over that span to a rate of 988,000 units per year.
Permits were down 24.5% to an annualized rate of just under 1.31 million per year, with single family permits down 27.9% to 926,000 units per year.
Through the first eight months of 2007, some 977,900 homes have been started, down 24.3% from the first eight months of 2006, and 779,900 single family homes have been started in that span, a 27.0% drop from last year.