According to HousingWire, the Commerce Department says on a seasonally-adjusted basis, housing starts fell nearly 24 percent from 687,000 in April of last year to 523,000 this past April.  Month-to-month housing starts fell 10.9 percent, March to April this year.  Analysts had expected a range of 530,000 to 583,000 homes to be built in April.  March had seen an increase from February of 7.2 percent, but that was on the heels of February’s steep decline of 22.5 percent, the largest drop since 1984.  April building permits were off 4 percent from a revised 574,000 for March.