This morning the Census Department released its latest look at housing activity. The headlines are that housing starts fell by 5.9% in February, mostly because of weakness in the Northeast and the South (which may well reflect February’s terrible weather). Most of the decline was in multi-family; single-family starts were essentially unchanged.
Although starts and permits usually grab the headlines, I think it’s also useful to look at another measure of housing activity: the number of houses under construction:
Not surprisingly, the chart shows that the number of single-family homes under construction fell off a cliff in early 2006. Almost 1 million new single family homes were under construction in February 2006. Today there are just 300,000.
The precipitous decline ended last summer, and housing construction has been essentially flat for several months. Perhaps housing construction has finally found bottom?
Bottom or close to it. It is time to go up.
http://kellerwilliamstyler.blogspot.com/
[...] Home Construction: On his blog, Donald Marron looks at whether home construction is bottoming. “Not surprisingly, the chart shows that the number of single-family homes under construction fell off a cliff in early 2006. Almost 1 million new single family homes were under construction in February 2006. Today there are just 300,000. The precipitous decline ended last summer, and housing construction has been essentially flat for several months. Perhaps housing construction has finally found bottom?” [...]
[...] Home Construction: On his blog, Donald Marron looks at whether home construction is bottoming. “Not surprisingly, the chart shows that the number of single-family homes under construction fell off a cliff in early 2006. Almost 1 million new single family homes were under construction in February 2006. Today there are just 300,000. The precipitous decline ended last summer, and housing construction has been essentially flat for several months. Perhaps housing construction has finally found bottom?” [...]
[...] summer, and housing construction has been essentially flat for several months,” Donald Marron says. “Perhaps housing construction has finally found [...]
[...] Follow this link: Is Home Construction Bottoming? « Donald Marron [...]
[...] Home Construction: On his blog, Donald Marron looks at whether home construction is bottoming. “Not surprisingly, the chart shows that the number of single-family homes under construction fell off a cliff in early 2006. Almost 1 million new single family homes were under construction in February 2006. Today there are just 300,000. The precipitous decline ended last summer, and housing construction has been essentially flat for several months. Perhaps housing construction has finally found bottom?” [...]
[...] Is Home Construction Bottoming? « Donald Marron [...]
[...] Is Home Construction Bottoming? « Donald Marron [...]
[...] “Is Home Construction Bottoming?” and related posts (dmarron.com) [...]
[...] I’ve noted in previous posts (here, for example), I think it’s useful to look not only at the number of housing starts, but also at [...]
Well I am not sure about it but it does not seem as bad as it looks on your graph.