Housing construction hits four-year high

Construction of new homes hit its fastest pace in more than four years in October, another indication of the housing market's continuing recovery. 

Builders started work on a seasonally adjusted 894,000 homes last month, up 3.6 percent from September and the most since July 2008, the Commerce Department reported on Tuesday. 

Home construction is up 41.9 percent over the same period last year. 

In April 2009, housing starts hit a low of 478,000, two months before the recession ended. 

Single-family home construction ticked down slightly by 0.2 percent to an annual rate of 594,000 last month after hitting a four-year high in September. 

Applications for building permits, an indicator of future building, were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 866,000, 2.7 percent below the revised September rate of 890,000, a four-year high. 

Permits are 29.8 percent above the October 2011 estimate of 667,000.

Single-family permits rose 2.2 percent, the best showing since July 2008. 

Construction on multi-family units such as apartments were up 10 percent to an annual rate of 285,000.

After years of struggling, the housing market is finally showing across-the-board improvement. 

Builder sentiment hit a six-year high in November, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index released Monday.

In a separate report, sales of previously occupied homes rose 2.1 percent to 4.79 million in October, the National Association of Realtors said.