Housing Starts Up – Housing Permits Down

Housing market

The Commerce Department reported housing starts rose 1.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 546,000 units. June’s housing starts were revised to show an 8.7 percent fall, which was previously reported as a 5 percent drop.

On the other hand, new building permits dropped 3.1 percent to a 565,000-unit pace last month, the lowest level since May 2009.

Commenting on the data, Paul Ashworth, Senior U.S. Economist at Capital Economics, said, “The bad news is that activity in the housing market is likely to remain depressed for several years. Housing is not going to lead the economic recovery.”

“The “good” news, however, is that housing is so depressed it is hard to see activity falling much further from such a severely depressed level,” he added.

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