RTRS: October housing starts, permits at record low
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Construction starts on new homes fell to a record low in October, as did new applications for building permits, a report by the Commerce Department showed on Wednesday, signaling that the national housing downturn may extend well into the future.
Housing starts fell 4.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 791,000 units from September's 828,000 units.
New applications for building permits, which give a sense of future home construction, plummeted 12 percent to 708,000 from 805,000 in September.
The record low for housing starts exceeded Wall Street expectations, however, as analysts polled by Reuters had expected them to tumble to 780,000 units. They also forecast that permits would reach 780,000.
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)
