Housing Starts Hit 17-Year Low

March starts plummet 11.9% as foreclosures create glut on market
By Jim O'Neill,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 16, 2008 8:45 AM CDT
Housing Starts Hit 17-Year Low
A worker lifts with a crane a completed wall for a new home at the Huntington Homes modular home factory in East Montpelier, Vt., Tuesday, March 11, 2008.   (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

Foreclosures and a glut of unsold homes flooding the market were blamed for an 11.9% drop in new housing starts last month, more than twice the slide economists had predicted, reports Bloomberg. Starts are at the lowest level since March 1991, according to the Commerce Department, casting a pall over hope for a rapid economic recovery. "Home construction is probably going to continue to fall right through this year,'' says one economist. (More new housing starts stories.)

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