Housing starts in 2008 fell to the lowest level since record keeping began -- a 50-year low -- the U.S. Commerce Department announced Thursday. (pdf)

Housing starts for all of 2008 fell 33% to 904,000 -- the lowest level of new construction since the federal government began keeping records in 1959, the Commerce Department said. In 2007, housing starts totaled 1.36 million units.

In December 2008, housing starts fell to a 550,000-unit annual rate. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected December 2008 housing starts to total a 625,000 annualized pace.

Also in December 2008, building permits fell 10.7% to a 549,000 annualized pace. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected December 2008 building permits to total a 616,000 annualized rate.

Meanwhile, permits to build single-family homes fell 12.3% to a 363,000 annualized rate in December 2008.

U.S. housing starts decreased 6.3% in September -- the U.S. Commerce Department announced Friday, as builders attempted to reduce supply amid the nation's worst housing slump in more than a generation. (pdf)

Housing starts fell to an 817,000 annual rate in September, the U.S. Commerce Department announced. It was the lowest housing start pace in 17 years. (pdf)

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected housing starts to total an 880,000 annualized rate in September. Housing starts for August were revised lower to 872,000 from 895,000.

Over the past four months, housing starts have averaged a 932,000 annual pace, down from 973,000 for the four months ending in August.

Further, single family home starts fell 12% to a 544,000 annualized rate in September, their lowest level in 16 years.

Also, building permits declined 8.3% in September to a 786,000 annualized rate -- a 27-year low.

In addition, housing starts are down 31.1% in the past year, single-family starts are down 42%.

U.S. housing starts decreased 3.3% in May, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Tuesday, as builders attempted to reduce supply amid the nation's worst housing slump in a generation.

Housing starts totaled a 969,000 annual rate in May, the Commerce Department said. It was the lowest housing start pace in 17 years.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected housing starts to total a 985,000 annualized rate in May.

Further, housing starts are down 32.1% in the past year and single-family home starts are down 41.2%. Over the past four months, housing starts have averaged a 1.02 million annual pace.

Meanwhile, building permits, a measure of future construction, decreased 1.3% to a 969,000 annualized rate in May. Single-family permits decreased 4%. Building permits have declined 36.3% in the past year.

Economist Glen Langan told BloggingStocks Tuesday many potential homebuyers are remaining in wait-and-see mode, as the housing slump persists.

U.S. housing starts increased 8.2% in April 2008 -- an upside surprise skewed by a 36% rise in multi-family unit construction. Housing starts totaled a 1.032 million annual rate in April 2008, the U.S. Commerce Department announced (pdf) Friday.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected housing starts to total a 940,000 annualized rate in April 2008.

Still, housing starts are down 31% in the past year and single-family starts are down 42%, the largest decline for single-family starts since 1992.

Meanwhile, building permits, a measure of future construction, increased 4.9% to a 978,000 annualized rate in April 2008; single-family permits increased 4% and multi-family permits climbed 6.8% during the month.

New home construction plunged 14% in December 2007 to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 1.01 million units, below the 1.14-million-unit consensus estimate, and the slowest pace in 16 years, the U.S. Commerce Department announced Thursday (pdf). Further, for 2007, new home construction fell 25% to 1.35 million units -- the lowest total since 1993.

Economist Steve Affinito told BloggingStocks Thursday December 2007's new home construction statistic closes out a difficult year for housing, to say the least.

Very weak statistic

"It's a very weak stat, one that confirms the housing sector's deep correction in 2007," Affinito said. "It indicates that builders pulled-back considerably in the face of an oversupply of new homes, and the inability of the market to work-off sales of existing homes."

Affinito added that he expected the housing sector to "take at least 1 percentage point off U.S. GDP in 2008." The earliest possible recovery quarter for the housing sector is Q1 2009 or Q2 2009, Affinito said.

On a year-over-year basis, housing starts are down 38%, the nation's biggest housing start slump since 1980.

Meanwhile, building permits, an indicator economists and analysts use to gauge future housing activity, fell 8% in December 2007 to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 1.07 million, the Commerce Department said. Single family home building permits fell 10% in December 2007 to 692,000 and fell 29% in 2007 to 1.05 million -- the lowest total since 1992.

The Commerce Department reported housing starts at a annual rate of 1.957 million units last month, an increase of 5% from April. This is better than the expected 1.86 million estimate and comes after three consecutive declines: 5.5% in April, 7.5% in March, 5.9% in February.

Economists were split on the direction of May U.S. housing starts, with many believing builders hadn't fully responded to a weakening in home sales. Yet most increased their expectations for the May number.

No doubt the Federal Reserve is keeping a close eye on this one as housing starts had pointed in prior years to a strong consumer and good prospects for economic growth.

The increase in construction of new homes and apartments was helped by dry weather.  However, analysts do point out that activity in the housing market is still expected to slow down in the next few months due to rising mortgage rates, just as the building permits number indicates.

Building permits in May were worse than expected at 1.932 million units, a drop of 2.1%. Another indicator of slowdown was The National Association of Home Builders confidence index, reported yesterday, which fell to 42 in June, the lowest point in 11 years.

As I indicated in the Before the Bell posts earlier this morning, I still expect markets to be mixed for the next month at the very least.  The housing market data released this morning could create some optimism at first. But all in all, the numbers don't point to much new.  Just as the good news about the narrowing trade deficit did nothing to alleviate investors' fears of further rate hikes and a slowdown in economic growth, this up-tick in housing starts will probably have the same negligible effect.