Como se combate o populismo? "Com eleições", responde Fukuyama

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8:30am 09/20/05 'MINIMAL' IMPACT FROM KATRINA ON AUG. HOUSING DATA
8:30am 09/20/05 U.S. AUG. BUILDING PERMITS FALL 2.2% TO 2.124 MILLION RATE
8:30am 09/20/05 U.S. AUG. HOUSING STARTS FALL 1.3% TO 2.009 MILLION RATE

ECONOMIC REPORT: Housing starts sink 1.3% to 2.01 million
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch
Last Update: 8:31 AM ET Sept. 20, 2005

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - New construction on U.S. houses units slipped 1.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.009 million units in August, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

The decline was slightly larger than expected. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch were calling for a decline to 2.03 million from 2.035 million in July.

Despite dropping to a five-month low, new construction remained at a very strong level.

New construction of single-family homes rose 0.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.709 million.

Meanwhile, 2.124 million building permits were authorized by local government jurisdictions, down 2.2% from July's 2.171 million pace.

Hurricane Katrina had "minimal" impact on the numbers. The metro areas most affected by the killer storm accounted for about 1.1% of building permits in the U.S. in 2004 and 2.4% of all permits in the South. The storm ravaged the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29 after hitting southern Florida earlier.

For those jurisdictions unable to report August data, the government would, following procedure, impute the numbers based on past experience. Eventually, the guesses would be updated with solid numbers.

For September, the government will assume no building permits were authorized if data is not reported and the local agency cannot be contacted.

The storm is expected to boost building activity in the region significantly in coming months, as hundreds of thousands of housing units are replaced.

In August, new construction dropped 6.6% in the South, 5.2% in the Midwest, and 4.1% in the Northeast. Starts increased 13.3% in the West.

The housing data are subject to large sampling and other statistical errors.

The government cautions that it can take up to five months for a new trend to be established in starts. Over the past five months, starts have averaged 2.034 million, down from 2.060 million a month ago.

In 2004, a total of 1.957 million units were started.