Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Housing starts fall UNEXPECTEDLY in August 2011- Reuters

.
9/20/11, "Housing starts drop underscores economic woes," Reuters, J. Lange

"New construction of homes fell more than expected in August, dragging on economic growth and keeping pressure on President Barack Obama to do more to help the sputtering economy.

Housing starts dropped 5 percent, the most since April, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000 units, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast groundbreaking activity would fall to only a 590,000-unit rate in August. Housing starts

  • are at less than a third of their peak during the housing boom.

"The housing market is not only bad, but still missing low expectations," said Sal Catrini, a managing director for equities at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co in New York....

The housing market "won't improve until the labor market improves substantially and that doesn't look like that would happen this year," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida."...


via American Thinker

No comments: