Construction starts on new U.S. 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.
h/t maz2
That is the other side of the ‘housing crisis’ that is purposefully being omitted from the reports on the subject.
If they report, that there is a great housing disaster, they can’t really add anything like “Starts in April ran at a 1.032-million-unit annual rate” to it, lest it will take the edge of the report.
The whole thing must go through a manufacturing process, to have the appropriate effect on the plebeians and of course it inflicts intended damage to the current government.
A couple of weeks ago I was trudging towards Pennsylvania Ave. to shout a few words of encouragement over the White House fence when I was accosted by a man carrying a mike and digital recorder.
“Hi I’m from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, may I ask you a few questions?”
Sure.
“First, where are you from?”
Vancouver.
“Oh sorry we just want to interview Americans.”
What’s it about?
“Well the Fed has just lowered interest rates again and we wanted to know how much you would be reducing your spending this year because of all this bad economic news that you are getting.”
Well I intend to spend more.
“ Oh that’s just because of our high Canadian dollar.”
Yah, right, see yah.
Pravda in action: Formulate an anti- American scenario then track down average Joes to confirm it.
The Americans have something that we don’t: Productivity growth.
As continuously articulated in the Post, the Americans are improving their productivity which in the end is the only measure of a nation’s well being that really, really matters.
God help us when the commodity boom busts.
Whoops …. !
This bloomberg article has a slightly different take.
U.S. Builders Broke Ground on Fewest Houses Since ’91 (Update3)
By Courtney Schlisserman
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.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601068&sid=aBjAubPMQ_yo&refer=economy
Don’t look now, more bad news:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080516/ap_on_bi_ge/paulson_economy_5;_ylt=An1rgJyLP7sHmDY3ZldLriT0kPUI
Is the soil underneath the ground warming up now or is it still cold from the winter? And does it itch or tickle when it gets in your ears and up your nose?
man it must be hard to talk down something that keeps going up. one media outlet had to say that apartment and commercial building accounted for the increase, as if that is bad?
The Wall Street Journal today indicated that some economists are changing their minds about the U. S. economy. Other U. S. and certainly Canadian media outlets want the economy to tank to further ensure a Democratic majority and President in November.
The little working-class town north of me seems to keep puttering along even with the current gas prices. They just landed a huge Google facility and the casino parking lots remain full.
Little sign of a recession in this economic backwater. P. S. Stay away. This is a terrible place to live!