Japan Housing Starts Post First Drop in 10 Months on Quake
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Japan’s housing starts dropped the first time in 10 months as the nation’s strongest earthquake on March 11 sapped demand, halting the strongest recovery in the real estate market in almost 15 years.
Construction companies broke ground on 2.4 percent fewer homes in March from a year earlier, according a report released today by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Tokyo. Housing starts were expected to fall 1.1 percent, based on the median estimate of 23 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.