It’s Friday, and housing starts are either at a 17 year low or "showing growth"- depending on your choice of spin:
May 16 (Bloomberg) — Construction of U.S. single-family houses in April dropped to the lowest level in 17 years, even as building of condominiums and townhouses rebounded.
Builders broke ground on 692,000 single-family homes at an annual rate, the fewest since January 1991, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Total housing starts jumped 8.2 percent to 1.032 million as construction of multifamily units rose 36 percent following a 35 percent drop in March.
“You cannot take the headline starts number seriously because of the increase in the multifamily number,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York, who had the closest estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. “The trends are horrific” because “why would you spend money to buy a depreciating asset?” he said.
Looking for something a little more upbeat?
Construction starts on new homes rose by a surprisingly strong 8.2 percent in April and applications for new building permits turned up for the first time in five months, the Commerce Department said on Friday in a report showing that the hard-hit housing sector still had some spring vigor.
Starts in April ran at a 1.032-million-unit annual rate, up from a revised 954,000-unit rate in March, while permits gained 4.9 percent to 978,000 a year from a revised 932,000 in March.
That was a significantly stronger performance than anticipated by economists surveyed by Reuters who had forecast April starts at a 940,000-unit rate and permits at 920,000 a year.
Here’s your chance to provide the analysis today- on housing starts or anything else relevant. I’m wandering around the hills of western Kentucky with very limited internet access.
