The U.S. Commerce Department said recently that home building permits, an indicator of future construction trends, fell last September by the largest amount in five months. The decline came at an unfortunate moment while Congress is considering whether to extend the tax credit for first-time homebuyers. The Commerce Department said that new home construction rose a meager 0.5 percent that month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 590,000 units—a weaker than expected showing. Building permits for Louisville homes and other construction were also down for September. So far this year, Louisville and nearby towns issued 592 building permits for new single-family homes. This represents a significant decline from the 789 permits issued for the previous September, according to the City’s Codes and Regulations Department website. The home construction industry nationwide has been struggling to recover this year after a steep collapse last year that helped plunge the nation’s economy into the worst recession since the Great Depression. The building sector in Louisville and across the country has been plagued by rising unemployment and tighter access to credit for mortgages and other loans. The industry is very concerned that things will get worse if the federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers expires in November as scheduled. The homebuilding industry says that extending and expanding the federal tax credit program for another twelve months would generate almost 350,000 jobs and $11.6 billion in additional tax revenues. Home and apartment construction rose in the southern United States in September by 7.1 percent. However, all other regions showed declines with building activity falling 8.8 in the West, 1.8 percent in the Midwest and 5.5 percent in the Northeast.