The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s September report on new residential construction illustrated a 15% jump in housing starts.  The annual rate rose to 872,000 in September compared to 758,000 in August – the highest level in four years.  The 872,000 new residential construction projects is well below the heavily inflated annual rate of over 2 million, which was the norm while the housing bubble remained intact.  Housing starts bottomed out in mid-2009 at 478,000, but have since rebounded nicely.  Coupled with housing starts is housing prices, a figure that is highly important in understanding the overall housing market in America.  The Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, a measure of home prices in 20 major metropolitan regions in the U.S., showed a 2.0% increase in prices from August 2011.  This is the largest increase in two years, and represents three straight months of year-over-year gains.