At a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $524.8 billion, new construction starts in November fell 11% from the previous month, according to McGraw Hill Construction, a division of McGraw Hill Financial.
The downturn followed heightened activity in October, which showed the strongest pace for construction starts so far during 2013. Both nonresidential building and nonbuilding construction pulled back from their elevated October amounts. At the same time, residential building showed modest growth in November, continuing the steady upward trend that’s been present during most of 2013.