CNN - "Builders hit the brakes" (8-16-06)

"Latest reading of housing starts, permits shows more of a slowdown than expected as builders continue pull back in once hot sector of economy."

"The slowdown is important because home building has become an important component of the U.S. economy. In the second quarter of 2005, investment in residences added 1.11 percentage points to the gross domestic product, the broad measure of the nation's economic activity. But in the second quarter it subtracted an estimated 0.4 percentage points."

"In addition, the Labor Department estimates that more than 3 million people work directly in residential construction, and that the sector was responsible for about 10 percent of the nation's overall gain in employment in all of 2005."