Housing slump sends chill through U.S. WASHINGTON – The slumping U.S. housing market is sending a chill through the entire economy as new data yesterday showed growth slilpped to 1.6% during the last quarter, the slowest in three years. The U.S. Commerce Department said growth in the world’s largest economy fell a full percentage point between July and September from 2.6% in the second quarter. Economists blamed the slump in housing sales — with prices falling the most in more than three decades last month — for slowing growth. ‘We are feeling the effects of the housing bubble bursting and, while the ill wind is not pleasant, it is not likely to be long-lasting,’ said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pa. ‘Businesses and households did their part to keep the economy going.’ Residential housing construction fell at an annual rate of 17.4% in the latest quarter, the largest decline since the first quarter of 1991, after shrinking at 11.1% in the previous three months. The decline subtracted 1.12 percentage points from growth, the most in almost a quarter-century. Stock markets slipped yesterday after the disappointing gross domestic product report, with shares […]