HousingWire reports housing starts fell by 30,000 units on an annualized basis comparing July to August. August numbers show 571,000 starts, a drop of 5%, and a 5.8 percent decline from a year earlier when they hit 606,000 units on an annualized basis. Single-family unit starts dropped 1.4% for August, but were up 2.6% from a year earlier. The home completion rate in August fell 2.7%, but was 2.6% higher than August 2010. Building permits climbed 3.2% in August, and increased 7.8% from a year ago. Analysts with Econoday say, “A rebound in permits suggests that some of the weakness in starts was weather related as Hurricane Irene likely weighed on new groundbreaking in the Northeast and parts of the South.”

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