Tag Archives: Housing Starts

November saw new housing starts jump to a nearly six-year high, the Census Bureau and HUD revealed Wednesday in a joint release. According to initial estimates, starts ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.09 million, a 22.7 percent spike from October and the highest rate since February 2008. Single-family housing starts contributed 727,000 (adjusted annual rate) to November's total, while the rate for multifamily buildings was about 354,000.

While the housing market is showing some signs of promise, a few major indicators continue to lag, according to the latest Trulia Housing Barometer.

Growing amounts of housing permits, improving home prices, and positive job numbers are leading to a stabilized housing market according to analysts. Recent studies revealed that markets in 54 out of the approximately 350 metro areas nationwide returned to or exceeded their last normal levels of economic and housing activity, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/First American Leading Markets Index (LMI). However, policymakers still need to watch their footing.

Modest to moderate economic growth continues to be the theme at the Federal Reserve, which released on Wednesday its Beige Book tracking expansion across its 12 districts from October through mid-November. The Fed reported improvements in residential real estate activity in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, and San Francisco, with slower single-family home sales softening real estate in most of the remaining districts.

The Census Bureau released on Monday its construction spending numbers for both September and October, catching up on releases delayed by the partial government shutdown. In September, total construction spending was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $901.2 billion, down from August's $903.8 billion. Spending for total residential construction, however, perked up, rising to an annual rate of $334.5 billion. Spending on homebuilding in October was down from the previous month, falling to an estimated rate of $332.9 billion.

With the federal government shutdown and debt ceiling negotiations still fresh in the nation's collective mind, Fannie Mae expects "continued market volatility" heading into the start of 2014.

Next year will likely be the first year since 2000 that home purchases outpace refinances, according to Freddie Mac's expectations.

Though the slow rate of household formation among millenials has been cause for alarm among some economists, analysts at Moody's Investors Service say reports of a "lost generation" are overblown.

Speaking at the 2013 Realtors Conference & Expo Friday, National Association of Realtors (NAR) chief economist Lawrence Yun predicted steadiness in existing-home sales over the next year as prices continue to ascend. Looking over the past year, Yun said he expects existing-home sales to be up about 10 percent in 2013 to 5.13 million. Sales in 2014 are expected to hold fairly even at about 5.12 million. Reviewing price movements, he said the median existing-home price should end 2013 about 11 percent higher than 2012.

Depressed construction activity is expected to continue weighing down both housing and the larger economy, Freddie Mac predicts in its latest Economic and Housing Outlook.