U.S Housing Starts Plunge

As reported by CNNMoney.com, "Home construction at lowest point in 6 months":

Homebuilders began construction at an annual rate of 529,000 new homes during the month, 10.6% below the revised September rate of 592,000 and 30.7% below the 763,000 rate during October 2008. It was the lowest level of housing starts since April, when the annual rate was 479,000.

Building permits showed weakness as well:

That weakness included the number of building permits issued in October, which fell to seasonally adjusted annual rate of 552,000. That was 4% below the revised September rate of 575,000 and 24.3% below the October 2008 estimate of 729,000.

Click here to view the full "New Residential Construction in October 2009" report as released by the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.