Shares of homebuilders KB Home and Ryland Group fell Wednesday after the Commerce Department reported construction of new homes plunged in October to the lowest level in at least 50 years.

The department said that construction of new homes and apartments fell 4.5 percent in October, the fourth straight monthly decline. Construction sank to an annual rate of 791,000 units, compared with a revised 828,000 units in September.

The results were the lowest on government records dating back to January 1959, according to Reuters. The slowest rate previously had been in January 1991, when the country was in recession. New building permits, an indicator of future activity, also fell to the lowest rate on record.

Still, the construction figure is better than expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who expected construction to fall to 780,000 units.

Despite the decline nationally, the West Coast fared better than other regions. Construction rose 7.5 percent in the West and 1.5 percent in the South, compared with a 31 percent drop in the Northeast and a 13.7 percent decline in the Midwest.

Share of Los Angeles-based KB Home were down 70 cents, or 7 percent, to $10.60 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Calabasas-based Ryland shares fell 53 cents, or 4 percent, to $12.97