Housing construction in the US hit an "all-time low" in December, according to new data from the National Association of Home Builders. (The definition of "all-time" is not clear; there must have been more housing starts last month than in December 1908.) The figures for all of 2008 were no better:
On an annual basis, year-end figures from the Commerce Department show that overall housing starts plunged to a record low of 904,000 units in 2008, down 33.3 percent from the previous year. Single-family starts were down 40.5 percent for the year to 622,000 units, while multifamily starts were off by 8.8 percent to 282,000 units.
State-level data from the Census Bureau is only available through November, but they show a decline in Massachusetts of 34.8 percent over the comparable period in 2007, almost exactly the same as the national decline of 34.5 percent. Housing starts fell by more than 50 percent in Georgia and the District of Columbia. The only increase was in New York, thanks to a jump in structures with at least five housing units.
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