US Home Construction Sinks to New Record Low

Construction of new homes plunged last month to the lowest level on records going back nearly 50 years as U.S. builders slashed production while Wall Street nosedived.

Roofers work on new home in Phoenix, Arizona, in this file photo. Home construction dropped by a record amount in October.

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Embattled homebuilders, who enjoyed a five-year boom, are now building new homes and apartments at a record-low pace, according to government data released Wednesday. New building permits, a barometer of future activity, also plummeted to the lowest pace on record.

With construction dropping, the number of unsold homes should fall quickly in the coming months, wrote Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. "But right now housing is a disaster area," he said.

The Commerce Department reported that construction of new homes and apartments fell 4.5 percent in October, the fourth straight monthly decline. Construction sank to an annual rate of 791,000 units from an upwardly revised September rate of 828,000 units.

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The results were the lowest on government records dating back to January 1959. Previously, the slowest pace had been in January 1991, when the country was in recession and going through a similar housing correction. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected construction to fall even further to a rate of 780,000 units

Wachovia Corp. economist Adam York forecasts that construction will fall to around 650,000 units by next summer. While that's going to be painful for the nation's homebuilders, it will help stabilize the overall U.S. housing market, he said.

"The broader housing market needs fewer homes," York said in an interview. "We built too many homes in the United States and building less is one way to work off the excess inventory."

The declines in construction last month were led by a 31 percent drop in the Northeast, where construction of single family homes fell to a new record low. They also dropped 13.7 percent in the Midwest. Construction rose 7.5 percent in the West and 1.5 percent in the South.

Applications for building permits, considered a good sign of future activity, fell by 12 percent in October to an annual rate of 708,000 units, the weakest on records dating to early 1960. New permits for single-family houses fell 14.5 percent to 460,000, the lowest level since February 1982.