...U.S. housing starts probably will stop falling in the fourth quarter and reduce the effect of the housing crisis on economic growth, said Peter E. Kretzmer, senior economist at Bank of America Corp. "Construction should bottom at the end of the year,'' Kretzmer said in a presentation at the University of Southern California Casden Forecast conference today in Los Angeles. By the last three months of the year, there will be "much less of a drag from housing on the overall economy.''...
