Housing starts, permits fall - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

artemchuksykitas.blogspot.com
says housing starts fell to an annual rateof 458,000, led by a 46 percenr decline in construction of apartmentzs and condos. Building permits fell 3.3 percen t to 494,000. The Commerce Departmenr also revised lower housing starts data for The slowdown in construction follows a reporg Monday from the that showede confidence among home builderwsis rising. Its confidence though still indicating the majority of those asked see conditionaas poor, rose for the second straight month this month. It was the highest levelk of confidence among home builders ineight months. Tighter lendinvg standards continue to strainhousing sales, and foreclosures are weighingt on housing values.
But by some measures, home sales are A gauge that measures pending sales of existinbg homesrose 3.2 percent in March, and posted its firs t consecutive gain in pending sales in almostf a year.