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Economy in Brief
Chicago Fed National Activity Index Improves in April
The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) rose to 0.47 during April...
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Of these 13 readings eight of them declined on the month in May three of them improved and two of them were unchanged...
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Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
Profits & Margins Plunge In Q1: Expect More Margin Contraction As Fed Squeezes Inflation
The Many Links of Inflation Cycle: Hard Landing Is Needed to Crack Them
Peak Inflation and Fed Policy: A Relationship which Should Worry the Fed and Scare Investors
Why Have the Yields on TIPS Been Negative in the Past Two Years?
by Tom Moeller July 18, 2007
Housing starts rose 2.3% during June to 1.467M and slightly beat Consensus expectations for 1.45M starts. The increase did little to dampen this year’s pace of 20%+ y/y declines.
The increase in June starts was all in multi-family structures. These rose 12.5% to 316,000 but essentially have been moving sideways.
Single-family starts slipped 0.2% to 1.15M, down for the third month in a row.
By region, single-family housing starts in the South fell a hard 4.6% (-27.2% y/y). Single-family starts in the Northeast rose 0.9% (19.6% y/y) and starts in the Midwest rose 3.1% (-21.7% y/y). Out West starts recovered 6.7% (-20.3% y/y).
Today’s testimony by Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke can be found here.
| Housing Starts (000s, AR) | June | May | Y/Y | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 1,467 | 1,434 | -19.4% | 1,819 | 2,073 | 1,950 |
| Single-family | 1,151 | 1,153 | -21.6% | 1,478 | 1,719 | 1,604 |
| Multi-family | 316 | 281 | -9.7% | 341 | 354 | 345 |
| Building Permits | 1,596 | 1,513 | -24.3% | 1,834 | 2,159 | 2,058 |
