New housing construction starts reached a record high in December 2019 going up 16.9%. This represents a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 1.608 million homes last December, which beat the record set in December 2006, 13 years ago, according to CNBC.
Last week's economic news included readings on construction spending, along with public and private-sector jobs growth. The national unemployment rate, weekly reports on mortgage rates and new jobless claims were also released.
Last week's housing related news was limited to Construction Spending and Freddie Mac's mortgage rates survey, but labor reports suggested an economic slowdown may be in the works.
Single-family housing starts plummeted to a one-year low in May, just 30 days after soaring to a 20-month high. It's no wonder home builders are confused.
A Housing Start is a new home on which construction has started and, over the last 6 months, home builders are averaging one half-million starts per month. This marks the highest 6-month average since 2008 and a reading one-fifth percent better from 12 months ago. Revisions to prior data have all been higher, too.
Once again, the housing market is showing that its worst [...]
There's a mixed message in February's Housing Starts data and [...]