Building permits see biggest drop in 26 years

Building-permit authorizations in October fell 12% from September to 708,000 - the biggest drop in 26 years, according to the Department of Commerce. That figure has fallen 40.1% since October 2007. Private housing starts dropped for the fourth consecutive month in October, by 4.5%. The number of single-family starts was 531,000 in October, which is 3.3% below the revised September rate with a 9.5% margin of error. That is 39.9% lower than the rate in October 2007. Single-family permits dropped 14.5% from September to 460,000. Housing completions were reported at 1.04 million in October, down 10.2% from September and 25.6% from a year earlier. Single-family homes were completed at a rate of 760,000 in October, down 7.7% from the previous month.