-->WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. housing starts unexpectedly plummeted 13.1 percent last month, the biggest dive in nearly 11 years, as groundbreaking activity fell sharply across the nation, a government report showed on Thursday.

Housing starts slid to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.771 million units in November from an upwardly revised 2.039 million clip a month earlier, the Commerce Department said. Starts have not fallen so precipitously since they tumbled 17 percent in January 1994.