The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s New Residential Construction report is a monthly estimate of how many new homes started construction during the month. The report also covers the number of permits to build new homes that were authorized. In October, both single-family authorizations and housing starts rose. The number of new homes that began construction jumped 4.2 percent and reached the highest rate since last November. Overall building permits also hit a high for the year, climbing nearly 5 percent from September’s estimate. Despite the improvements, however, analysts say November’s results are likely to be weaker than October’s due to the onset of colder weather across the country and the fact that month-to-month construction data tends to be volatile. In fact, though new residential construction is up nearly 8 percent over last year, monthly estimates have been largely up-and-down all year, plummeting one month and rising the next. More here.