AP: “Housing construction cooled last month as the number of housing projects builders started plunged 13 percent. The decline is the biggest in nearly 11 years and it takes housing starts to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.77 million units, the lowest level since May 2003. The Commerce Department also reports that a sign of future building slipped. Building permits decreased by 1.5 percent to a 1.99 million annual rate.” And this: a 12% drop in new single-family home sales. My take.