The U.S. housing industry finished 1988 with...

The U.S. housing industry finished 1988 with an 8.4% decline in completion of privately owned units compared to the previous year, the Commerce Department reported. For December, completions were down 6.6% from the same month in 1987. The December completions were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,517,000 units, up 5.9% from November but shy of the year’s actual total of 1,528,000 units, the department said. The December results included an annual rate of 1,085,000 single-family units, up 4.5% from November. The completion rate for two- to four-family units jumped 35% to 58,000, while units for five or more families climbed 6.6% to 374,000. At the end of the month, the number of units under construction was estimated at an annual rate of 958,000, roughly flat with a month earlier. They included 605,000 single-family units, 42,000 two- to four-family units and 311,000 units for five or more families.