U.S. Housing Starts Rise for First Time Since August

Builders in the U.S. began work on more homes in November for the first time in three months, showing the industry is struggling to recover.

Housing starts rose to a 555,000 annual rate, up 3.9 percent from October’s 534,000 pace that was higher than initially estimated, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey called for a 550,000 pace. Building permits, a proxy of future work, fell, reflecting a drop in applications for multifamily projects.