Austin, Texas Housing consulting company Metrostudy recently released local-level home start reports for the second quarter, revealing a rise in residential construction in both Chicago and Austin. While both metros saw boosts in annual home starts through the second quarter, the report shows Austin reported stronger sales fueled from considerable job growth. New construction rose in Chicago, but the number of new homes completed and sold dropped by 4.1 percent to 5,960 since the same time last year. Chicago sales were limited because of rising home prices, costly taxes, lack of buyer confidence and political instability, Metrostudy says. In Austin, annual starts hit their highest volume in three years, at 13,423 homes. Austin had an unemployment rate of 2.9 percent in the secon…