Thread: June housing construction rises unexpectedly

June housing construction rises unexpectedly

By ALAN ZIBEL, AP Real Estate Writer Alan Zibel, Ap Real Estate Writer

WASHINGTON – Construction of new U.S. homes rose in June to the highest level in seven months, a sign builders are starting to regain confidence as they emerge from the housing bust.

The Commerce Department said Friday that construction of new homes and apartments jumped 3.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 582,000 units, from an upwardly revised rate of 562,000 in May.

That was better than the 530,000-unit pace economists expected, and the second straight increase after April's record low of 479,000 units.

In another encouraging sign, applications for building permits, seen as a good indicator of future activity, rose 8.7 percent in June to an annual rate of 563,000 units. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected an annual rate of 520,000 units.

The jump in housing starts reflected a more than 14 percent rise in construction of single-family homes.

Over the past three years, the collapse in the housing market led to soaring loan losses, a severe banking system crisis and the longest recession since World War II. Even with the better-than-expected figures, analysts don't expect a quick rebound in housing. That's because the economy is still shedding jobs and home prices are falling, making people hesitant to commit to buying a new home.

The National Association of Home Builders said Thursday that its housing market index rose two points to 17 in July, the highest level in nearly a year. Readings below 50 indicate negative sentiment about the market. The last time it was above 50 was April 2006.

While housing normally leads the economy out of a recession, a glut of unsold homes and a record wave of mortgage foreclosures dumping more properties on the market is expected to temper demand. Despite the rise in housing construction for June, activity still was 46 percent below the year-ago level.

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Originally Posted by IronAddict

That same exact thing is going on here in my neck of the woods. The city has to spend its allottment of monies, so they get the same budget next year.

Business as usual, no matter who's in the big house in D.C.

Yeah they are typically doing something, big city there's always something to fix. It just usually makes sense, they fix things that are broken. They repaved my block a few years ago, it was a bitch for a week, but the road was all messed and needed it. The road I spoke about earlier was the same way. Now they are doing shit just for the sake of doing. And they are not doing it well. I'm not racist but I remember Obama having a whole thing about giving jobs to unemployed minorities with next to no training, and it really does seem like it. I mean the guys can't even properly set up cones or direct traffic on the big avenues. The guy that drove a CAT thing into a car...he was being waved through by another guy while some other dude was waving the cars through and boom a couple of cars in front of me I see everybody looking blah blah blah. It was funny as shit but pissed me off cause it caused even more traffic.