ECONOMY

Housing Starts Up 6.9% in November: It was the largest increase in eight months, as new construction rebounded from the previous month’s decline. The surprising surge was attributed by analysts to warm weather in the Northeast and Midwest. They said they still expect rising mortgage rates to restrain single-family construction. “There may be a December pay-back for the temporary spike in November housing starts,” said economist Jose Rasco of Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York. “In any case, the outlook is for a decline in residential construction in 1995.” The Commerce Department said builders broke ground on 1.54 million units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, up from 1.44 million in October. Starts are 14.2% higher than they were in the first 11 months of 1993.