New Home Construction Levels a Stong Sign of Recovery, Economist Says - East Idaho News
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New Home Construction Levels a Stong Sign of Recovery, Economist Says

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Getty 111914 Construction?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1416425197700iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Home improvement chains like Lowe’s and Home Depot are reporting higher profits and positive forecasts, and it’s likely due to improvement, however modest, for the housing market.

Despite a 2.8 percent dip in new home construction in October, David Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, says the housing recovery continues, with a 4.2 percent uptick in single-family home construction to 700,000 a month. The slight decline for housing starts was driven mainly by a 15 percent decrease in construction of rental apartments, a notoriously volatile market.

Crowe says the latest data is a strong indicator that the single family market is continuing to improve after “many years to get [housing starts] up to that level.” He says the recovery will continue to be modest, and that market observers are “not going to see it just take off like a rocket.” But, he adds, “we are going to continue to see this nice steady improvement.”

“Consumers are coming back into the marketplace. They’re feeling better about their own job prospects, about affordability, about low mortgage rates,” Crowe says, “and so we’re seeing some of that pent up demand being released.”


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