Construction

Housing Starts Drop 14.3 Percent; Builders ‘Repositioning’ 

Total housing starts declined 14.3 percent in January as builders worked down their inventories of unsold homes, according to figures released by the Commerce Department late last week. The pace of construction for the month slowed to seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.408 million units, 37.8 percent below the January 2006 pace. “Builders are doing what they should be doing in the market today,� said Brian Catalde, president of the National Association of Home Builders and a home builder from Playa del Rey, Calif.