News Analysis Construction for nearly 600,000 single-family homes started across America in the six months ending October, the most since 2006 before the Great Recession. That’s up 14 percent from the year before and more than 150 percent from a decade ago, according to data from the federal housing department and Census Bureau. The construction boom provides a glimmer of hope to prospective home buyers discouraged by rising prices this year. The median home sold for more than $400,000 in the 3rd quarter, up from less than $340,000 the year before. Prices are still expected to rise, but at a lower rate. Home construction was decimated during the 2008 crash, dropping to as low as about 40,000 starts a month in 2009. It has steadily grown since then, but never reached the peaks of previous booms of the 1970s, 80s, or 2000s. The industry took off in 2019, spurred partly …