Housing Starts Reach Four-Year High

A thinning supply of existing housing, record-low mortgage rates, and burgeoning consumer confidence boosted housing starts 41.9% in October from a year earlier to the highest annual rate in four years. Putting the U.S. on track for 894,000 starts in 2012, the gains beat analyst estimates that called for a drop to a rate of 840,000, Bloomberg reports, and don't include the likely new builds resulting from damage incurred when Hurricane Sandy made landfall late last month.

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