The rate of home-price appreciation continued to slow in the third quarter, confirming a “national deceleration in house prices,” the director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said today.

OFHEO’s latest House Price Index showed the rate of appreciation falling in seven of nine U.S. Census divisions, and prices on the decline in five states: New York, Rhode Island, Michigan, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. More than half the cities in California experienced price declines in the third quarter.

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The rate of private residential construction spending fell for the seventh straight month in October and was 9.4 percent below the October 2005 rate, the U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced today.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of total construction spending was about $1.18 trillion in October, which is 1 percent below the revised September estimate and 2.4 percent above the October 2005 estimate.

During the first 10 months of this year, total construction spending was about $1.01 trillion, which 5.9 percent higher than spending in the first 10 months of 2005.

Single-family home sales and prices in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area continued to cool in October, according to preliminary statistics provided by North Texas Real Estate Information Systems.

Realtors recorded 6,739 single-family home sales in October, up from 6,622 in September, but down 4 percent from approximately 7,020 sales a year ago. October’s decline marked the fifth straight month that sales have fallen behind their 2005 levels.

The area’s median home price in October at $143,000 was 3 percent lower than a year ago when it registered $147,422.

The California Building Industry Association reported a 46.8 percent statewide drop in building permits issued for new single-family homes in October compared to the same month last year, and permits for the first 10 months of the year are down 30 percent compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, permits for multifamily units increased 28.4 percent in October compared to the same month last year, and were up 6 percent for the first 10 months of the year, the association also reported.