Recent Updates
- US: Public Debt (Feb), Mfrs' Shipments Inventories & Orders (Jan), Productivity & Costs with Revisions (Q4)
- Global Sector PMIs (Feb)
- Canada: Labor Productivity & Unit Labor Cost (Q4)
- Philippines: Int'l Reserves & Foreign Currency Liquidity (Jan)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Rise Just 9,000
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose modestly by 9,000 to 745,000 in the week ended February 27...
U.S. Productivity's Decline Lessened in Q4'20; Reverses Q3 Increase
Revisions to nonfarm business sector productivity indicated a 4.2% decline during Q4'20...
EMU Unemployment Rate Steadies in January
The overall EMU unemployment rate was steady in January, off peak, but still elevated...
U.S. ADP Nonfarm Private Payroll Increase Disappoints in February
Job market strength moderated last month....
U.S. ISM Services Index Weakens in February
The ISM Composite Index of Services Activity declined to 55.3 during February...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller May 17, 2005
Housing starts rebounded 11.0% in April and recovered about half of the prior month's unrevised 17.6% decline.The rise to 2.038M exceeded Consensus expectations for 1.97M starts. Figures were revised back to 2003.
Single-family starts gained back just a piece of the prior month's sharp decline with a 6.3% m/m rise. All of the rise was due to a 21.1% (11.4% y/y) increase in the South while single family starts in the Northeast dropped for the third month this year (-12.9% y/y). Single family starts in the Midwest fell 7.6% (-19.1% y/y) and starts in the West were off 4.7% but still up 1.0% y/y.
Multi family starts gained back most of the prior moth's skid with a 35.2% rise.
Building permits rose 5.3%. This first increase in three months was nearly back to the record high.
Housing Starts (000s, AR) | April | March | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | 2,038 | 1,836 | 3.6% | 1,950 | 1,854 | 1,7 10 |
Single-family | 1,635 | 1,538 | 0.7% | 1,604 | 1,505 | 1,363 |
Multi-family | 403 | 298 | 17.3% | 345 | 349 | 347 |
Building Permits | 2,129 | 2,021 | 2.9% | 2,058 | 1,8 88 | 1,749 |