More bad economic news for Mitt Romney:

Housing starts increased 15 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 872,000 units, beating even the most optimistic forecasts on Wall Street, Commerce Department data showed on Wednesday.

It was the quickest pace of groundbreaking since July 2008, though data on starts is volatile and subject to substantial revisions.

America's economy has shown signs of faster growth in recent months as the jobless rate has fallen and retail sales data has pointed to stronger consumer spending.

Yikes. If the housing industry starts coming back, that's a huge bite out of unemployment right there.

Romney's electoral hopes have always been pinned to the economy, and no doubt a lot of Americans are still suffering. It remains to be seen whether this economic upturn comes just in time to save President Obama's bacon, or just too late.