Bad news overall for the U.S. economy and mostly due  to weak construction spending and weak home sales, according to a report Wednesday by Reuters News Service.

According to the report, U.S. manufacturing growth “came close to stagnating” last month and experts are saying this downturn is housing led.

Figures reported by Reuters are telling: “U.S. construction spending fell 0.3 percent in September led by a sixth straight monthly drop in private residential building. Pending sales of existing homes dropped 1.1 percent.”

“The broader economy is now slowing, and slowing sharply, one senior economist tells Reuters.

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Tags: construction, Economy, housing, manufacturing, slump

It is not uncommon for people to catch cold during the fall and winter months, but it would appear the U.S. ecomony is also feeling a bit of a chill, and some experts say the recent slump in housing sales is to blame.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that overall growth slipped to 1.6 percent during the last quarter–and that is the slowest it has been in three years, according to an article in Canada’s National Post reporting from Washington,D.C.

The paper says economists have zeroed in on housing sales as the primary culprit with prices falling the most in more than 30 years last month alone.

“We are feeling the effects of the housing bubble bursting and, while the ill wind is not pleasant, it is not likely to be long lasting,” Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors in Pennsylvania told the paper.

Tags: advisors, commerce, department, economic, growth, housing, sales, slump