Housing starts dropped 16.8% in January

New residential-housing construction permits continued to decline last month, falling 4.8% from December. New construction permits dropped to 521,000, a 50.5% decrease from January 2008 There were 466,000 housing starts last month, a 16.8% drop from December and a 56.2% decline from January 2008, according to a report released today by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In addition, 776,000 privately owned housing units were completed last month, down 24.2% from December and 41.7% from a year earlier. Single-family housing completions saw a 17.5% decline from December, to 566,000.