Builders in November capped the strongest three months for residential construction in four years and permits climbed as record-low borrowing costs buoyed the U.S. housing market.
Starts fell 3 percent to a 861,000 annual rate from a revised 888,000 annual pace in October, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday in Washington. The median estimate of 85 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a drop to 872,000. Building permits, a proxy for future construction, advanced to a four-year high.
