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Economy in Brief
Japan's Inflation Shows Mixed Gains
Japan's inflation rose by 0.4% in July...
U.S. Existing Home Sales Continue to Fall in July
Existing home sales declined 5.9% (-20.2% y/y) in July to 4.810 million units...
U.S. Index of Leading Indicators Fell Again in July
The Conference Board's Composite Leading Economic Indicators Index fell 0.4% m/m...
U.S. Philly Fed General Activity Index Back to Positive Reading in August
The current general activity diffusion index rose nearly 19 points in August to 6.2...
U.S. Unemployment Claims Slightly Lower
Initial claims for unemployment insurance went down 2,000 in the week ended August 13 to 250,000...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller August 16, 2005
Housing starts remained firm last month at 2.042M units versus an upwardly revised 2.045M units in June.Consensus expectations had been for a slight decline to 2.025M starts.
Single-family starts nudged up 0.5% after a 1.2% decline in June. Single family starts in the Midwest rose 5.0% (0.6% y/y) and in the West rose 4.1% (-7.4% y/y). Single family starts in the Northeast starts fell 7.6% (+12.6% y/y) and in the South starts fell 1.5% (+9.0% y/y).
Multi family starts gave back half of the prior month's rise and fell 3.2%.
Building permits increased for the second consecutive month and rose 1.6%.
| Housing Starts (000s, AR) | July | June | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 2,042 | 2,045 | 2.8% | 1,950 | 1,854 | 1,7 10 |
| Single-family | 1,711 | 1,703 | 3.0% | 1,604 | 1,505 | 1,363 |
| Multi-family | 331 | 342 | 1.8% | 345 | 349 | 347 |
| Building Permits | 2,167 | 2,132 | 2.5% | 2,058 | 1,8 88 | 1,749 |
