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Economy in Brief
Delay in Release
of Data for Construction, MSIO, Intl Trade, Wholesale Trade, Monthly Treasury, Retail Sales, Business Sales & Inventories, and Housing Starts Due to Lapse in Federal Government Funding.
U.K. Retail Sales Begin to Lose Momentum
U.K. retail sales fell by a sharp 1% in December...
Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index Rebounds; Pricing Pressure Eases
The Philadelphia Fed reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index increased to 17.0 during January...
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Slip
Initial claims for jobless insurance eased to 213,000 (-2.6% y/y) during the week ended January 12...
Passenger Car Registrations Hold to Low Ground in Europe
Passenger car registrations in Europe fell on a year-over-year comparison for the fourth consecutive months in December...
by Tom Moeller June 16, 2011
New activity in the housing sector continued to languish last month.
Housing starts rose just 3.5% during May to 560,000 (AR) following an 8.8%
April decline, initially reported as -10.6% . The latest figure remained
near the lowest in two years and compared to Consensus expectations for 546,000
starts.
Single-family starts rose 3.7% and recovered the prior month's decline. Activity in the multi-family area showed an increase of just 2.9% but that followed a 21.7% April drop. Starts of 2-to-4 building units fell by one-half m/m (-41.7% y/y) but starts of larger buildings with 5 or more units rose 8.9% (24.1% y/y).
Building permits rose 8.7% (5.2% y/y). Single-family permits rose 2.5% (-6.9% y/y) while multi-family permits rose by nearly one-quarter m/m (40.8% y/y).
The housing starts figures can be found in Haver's USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in the AS1REPNA database.
| Housing Starts (000s, SAAR) | May | Apr | Mar | Y/Y % | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 560 | 541 | 593 | -3.4 | 585 | 554 | 900 |
| Single-Family | 419 | 404 | 418 | -8.9 | 471 | 442 | 616 |
| Multi-Family | 141 | 137 | 175 | 17.5 | 114 | 112 | 284 |
| Starts By Region | |||||||
| Northeast | 58 | 60 | 61 | -18.3 | 72 | 61 | 120 |
| Midwest | 94 | 98 | 81 | -11.3 | 98 | 95 | 134 |
| South | 271 | 267 | 337 | -6.2 | 296 | 281 | 451 |
| West | 137 | 116 | 114 | 20.2 | 120 | 117 | 195 |
| Building Permits | 612 | 563 | 574 | 5.2 | 603 | 582 | 896 |
