Market Update: January Housing Starts Dive February 19, 2014 Today’s housing starts report showed a 16% fall in new home construction. Quicken Loans Vice President Bill Banfield offers the following comments on the report: The brutal winter continues its assault on the housing market as January brought another decline in housing starts. The construction of new homes may be in a period of hibernation in some parts of the country but permits to build were more consistent and suggest the drop may be a weather related anomaly. If you have any questions, please contact us.