A couple of weeks ago we looked at leading indicators, but at that time I didn’t talk about Housing Permits or Housing Starts. I’ll share those stats now and tie them into a series of articles about where the housing market is headed due to demographic shifts.
First, a quick review of what defines Housing Permits and Housing Starts:
Housing Permits: Official certificate of permission issued by local authorities to a builder to construct, enlarge, or alter a building.
Housing Start: The number of privately owned new houses on which construction has been started in a given period.
As of May 16th, Housing Permits fell a little – 0.7%. Housing Starts were up as reported by The Commerce Department with an increase of 2.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 717,000 units. March’s starts were revised up to a 699,000 – up from a previously reported 654,000 unit rate.
(Source)
Economists polled by Reuters recognize that residential construction is up 29.9% over last year at this time. Many of the these economists feel that the housing market is showing some signs of life after collapsing six years ago, but… Continue Reading
