U.S. housing starts declined 4.1 percent in December 2011, the Commerce Department reported, but analysts said the figure was "distorted by seasonal and year-end adjustments," Yahoo! News reported January 19, 2012.
There were 657,000 housing starts in December, down from 685,000 in November. The number of housing That was 7.8 percent above the level of December 2010, the Commerce Department said.
Construction starts of buildings with five or more units dropped 27.8 percent to a 164,000-unit rate, the biggest drop since February 2011.
Tempering the overall decline, single family housinf starts increased 4.5 percent to a 470,000-unit rate.
Permits fell 0.1 percent to an annual rate of 679,000 units.
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