Construction starts on new U.S. homes plunged to a 17-1/2-year low during August as builders scaled back sharply to try to cope with the worst slump in U.S. housing since the Great Depression.

People are supposed to wait in line 12 hours for concert tickets, not the kind of promotional mortgage offered by Liberty Bank to celebrate the opening of its new Wethersfield branch.

Essex Savings Bank has announced it will donate $120,800 from the directors’ portion of the bank’s Community Investment Program to 32 local non-profit organizations.

Hennequin Breakell Real Estate of Goshen, independent since 1968, will merge with the Litchfield office of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, the companies said.

Shares of American International Group, which has significant operations in Connecticut, fell nearly 40 percent in premarket trading after reports that the insurer had turned to the Federal Reserve for $40 billion in bridge financing to ward off a liquidity crisis and ratings downgrades.