New residential construction data from the Commerce Department released today showed that single-family housing starts dropped in July to 502,000 units or 6.5% below June’s revised rate of 537,000 units. And while this figure is still a solid 17% over July 2011’s rate of 429,000 units – it was a bit of a disappointment as single-family starts have increased for the last four months in a row, leading some to conclude that the housing market was on a rebound.