National Residential Building Permits Up Nov to Dec 2010

Building permits in December 2010 were 635,000, up 16.7 percent from November but down 6.8 percent from December 2009. Housing starts were 529,000 in December 2010, down 4.3 percent from the prior month and 8.2 percent below December 2009.

http://www.census.gov/const/www/newresconstindex.html