The number of residential building permits in Germany remained well below target in July, with only 17,000 new homes authorized. That is 19.2% fewer than in the same month a year ago, the Federal Statistical Office said on Wednesday. This means the decrease was slightly greater than in June, when authorizations fell 19% year-on-year. In the first seven months of this year, the number of permits for 123,600 new homes was 20.8% below the same period last year. The federal government aims to have 400,000 new homes authorized per year. The decline remained strongest for single-family houses: from …