Summary Box: Housing starts down in July (AP)

BUILDING DOWN: U.S. homebuilders began work on a seasonally adjusted 604,000 homes last month, a 1.5 percent drop from June. That's half the 1.2 million homes per year that economists say must be built to sustain a healthy housing market.

SINGLE-FAMILY DOWN, APARTMENTS UP: Single-family homes, which represent 70 percent of home construction, fell 5 percent. Apartment building rose more than 6 percent. Building permits, a sign of future construction, declined 3.2 percent.

FEW HOMES BEING BUILT: The number of homes under construction is the fewest in 40 years. Just 413,000 homes are being built, after accounting for seasonal factors. A decade ago, roughly 1.6 million homes were built.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110816/ap_on_bi_ge/us_housing_starts_summary_box

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