US housing starts hits 30-month high

adr0ck

A 17.2% increase in May was more than twice what economists predicted



The first green shoots appear to be emerging in the US housing market, as the number of homes under construction soared to a two-and-a-half-year high.


Housing starts, that is new construction work on houses or flats, increased by 17.2% in May to a seasonally adjusted annualised rate of 532,000 homes – a level not seen since January 2006, prior to the existing housing crisis.


http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=284&storycode=3142887&c=1

StevieJ

A little puzzle for the bears Is this good news or bad

inspector_monkfish

i saw this story yesterday, and thought it was a bit mis-leading.
its all small volume, high percentages....

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13:41 16Jun09 -MARKET TALK: Apartment Buildings Led May Starts Gain


1241 GMT - The unexpectedly strong 17.2% jump in starts was paced by multi-unit construction. Starts for housing with two or more units jumped 61.7% to 131,000; within that category, groundbreakings of homes with five or more units - or multi-family - were 77.1% higher. Single-family starts climbed 7.5% to 401,000, after rising 3.3% in April and 1.1% during March. But even with the May gain, year over year, total housing starts were 45.2% lower than the pace of construction in May 2008. (KGM)

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i think the 77.1% figure makes the overall average a bit distorted

chucky

inspector_monkfish wrote: »

i saw this story yesterday, and thought it was a bit mis-leading.
its all small volume, high percentages....

just like the house prices average indexes then, some people still take notice of those...

ILW

Thought they had millions of repossed houses that started all this credit crunch. Why build more?

inspector_monkfish

ILW wrote: »

Thought they had millions of repossed houses that started all this credit crunch. Why build more?

i think we just went full circle on the 'bulldoze a US town' thread....

ad9898_3

StevieJ wrote: »

A little puzzle for the bears Is this good news or bad

It could bring a whole different tone to the phrase 'it started in America'.:D

kennyboy66_2

StevieJ wrote: »

A little puzzle for the bears Is this good news or bad

Just another country "talking themselves" out of recession.

It'll never last.

kennyboy66_2

ILW wrote: »

Thought they had millions of repossed houses that started all this credit crunch. Why build more?

A bit like the bears dreams that there is massive over-supply in this country.

Not much use if there are lots of empty houses in Hull or Detroit if you want to live in Cambridge or San Diego.

adr0ck

interesting bit at end of article:



The news comes as economists from America’s top banks announced the US economy should emerge from recession by late summer.

The American Bankers Association’s Economic Advisory Committee said it expects economic activity to rise by 0.5% between July and September.

purch

US housing starts hits 30-month high

The Bears won't take notice until they become Housing Completions