Housing starts keep falling despite declining mortgage rates

Delayed October data indicate builders are waiting for customer demand to return.

- BY MICHAEL SASSO

WORKERS in Pacific Palisades on Tuesday. New residential construction in the U.S. fell 4.6% in October.

Housing starts fell in October to the lowest level since the onset of the pandemic as data delayed by last fall's government shutdown showed builders continued to cut back amid stillhigh prices and mortgage rates.

New residential construction decreased 4.6% to an annual rate of 1.25 million homes in October, government figures released Friday showed. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg saw 1.33 million housing starts.

Starts of one-family homes rose 5.4% to an annualized 874,000 pace, though they remained near the lowest levels of the last two years. Starts of structures with five or more units fell almost 26% in October, to a five-month low.