The already sluggish pace of US home building dipped further in September as construction fell in the south and midwest regions, the government reported on Wednesday. The slowdown, which reversed much of August’s gains, followed the mid-month clobbering by Hurricane Florence, which tore through mid-Atlantic states. The result was more bad news for what has become a lone dark spot on the world’s largest economy. The monthly figures are subject to broad margins of error, and officials caution trends may take six months to appear. But slow construction has tightened the supply of homes for sale, pushing up prices and eating into sales even as interest rates rise, analysts say. Total housing starts fell 5.3% from a downward-revised August to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.20-million, with most of the decline in the volatile area of apartments. Analysts had been expecting a slightly smaller decrease to 1.22-million. New building The rate was still 3.7% above the pace recorded in Septemb...
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