Source: www.cnnmoney.com  

Home building fell sharply in July to a 17-year low, according to government stats.

Housing starts plunged 11% to an annual rate of 965,000 from a revised 1.084 million pace in June, according to the Census Bureau report and permits tumbled 17% to an annual rate of 937,000 from a revised 1.138 million.

The downturn in housing and building has hammered the results of most of the nation's major builders. Late last month Centex, which is the No. 2 builder by revenue, reported a larger-than-expected loss and warned it was seeing no improvement in the home building market.

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