The residential construction surge from September stayed the course in October, as the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts increased to 894,000.
The figure is up 3.6% from a downwardly revised September estimate of 863,000. More impressive, it is up 41.9% from the October 2011 rate of 630,000. Like the September figure, the October figure is the highest since July 2008.
On the single-family housing front, the October rate of 594,000 is 0.2% below the downwardly revised September figure of 595,000.
