Housing starts plunge because of cold weather

Christian Science Monitor - The Commerce Department said  that builders began construction at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 897,000 homes in February, a steep 17 percent plunge from January. Housing starts slid 56.5 percent in the Northeast and 37 percent in the Midwest, while falling 18.2 percent in the West and 2.5 percent in the South."This was a poor report, but some of the ill effects can be chalked up to an unusually cold and wet February," IHS Global Insight economists Patrick Newport and Stephanie Karol wrote in an e-mailed report. "Ice and snow can explain the massive drop in housing starts in the Northeast and Midwest regions.