Economic Watch: Housing, Industrial Production, E-Commerce Sales Improve
The U.S. housing market improved in October following some ups and downs earlier in the year, while industrial production jumped in part due to increased manufacturing. And e-commerce retail sales continued booming in the third quarter.
New home construction surged 13.7% from the month before to an annual rate of 1.29 million units, according to a Commerce Department report Friday. That’s the highest level in a year and better than a consensus estimate from analysts. September’s performance also was revised slightly higher.
The October increase ended three straight months of declines triggered due to shortages of land, labor and even building materials, according to Reuters, which had put a damper on both new home construction and even sales of these homes. The 2.4% increase in total housing starts from the same time a year ago also has been kept lower due to less multi-family home construction.
Construction of new single-family homes, the largest share of the market, saw a 5.3% increase in October from the month before, hitting its highest level in eight months.
Also, the number of building permits issued for all homes, an indicator of future building levels, moved 5.9% higher in October to its highest level since January.
Overall, the “report does point to momentum for new home sales,” according to analysts at Econoday, who noted the housing market started the year off strong but stumbled through the spring and had a flat summer.
Analysts at Wells Fargo Securities said the pace of building came back stronger than before two hurricanes hit the U.S. this summer. The increase in permits issued also bodes well for residential investment in coming months.
This follows another report on the housing market from Thursday that revealed builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes rose two points to a level of 70 in November, according to …Read the rest of this story
