Home Building is Up – May Signal Stronger Housing Market

We’re always on the lookout for good news regarding the housing market. When there is good news to share, we make every effort to do so, because when people understand what’s going on at a macro level, it will help calm nerves and produce an impact all the way down to individual buying decisions.

There is some interesting news coming out regarding housing starts.  Here is what CNN Money is reporting:

The annual pace of housing starts topped 1 million for the first time in nearly five years in March, another sign of the rebound in the sector.

The pace of housing starts came in at an annual rate of 1.04 million in the month, up 7% from February and 47% from a year earlier. It marked the first time since June 2008 that the pace of building crossed the 1 million benchmark.

Even with the recent gains in the sector, the reading was much stronger than forecasts.

The trouble begins when you start picking apart these numbers.

But much of the spike in housing starts was due to a surge in building apartment and condominium complexes with five or more homes in them. Those units jumped by 27% from February and 82% compared to a year earlier.

As you can see, there is still some fluctuations and potentially misleading signals out there.  We’ll keep an eye on it for you…