2月份房屋開工回升

U.S. Census Bureau 3/17所公佈之二月份建築許可及新屋開工雙雙回升.

建築許可BUILDING PERMITS :　

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 547,000. This is 3.0 percent (±3.5%)* above the revised January rate of 531,000, but is 44.2 percent (±1.2%) below the revised February 2008 estimate of 981,000.

Single-family authorizations in February were at a rate of 373,000; this is 11.0 percent (±2.1%) above the January figure of 336,000.

新屋開工HOUSING STARTS:

Privately-owned housing starts in February were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 583,000. This is 22.2 percent (±13.8%) abovethe revised January estimate of 477,000, but is 47.3 percent (±5.3%) below the revised February 2008 rate of 1,107,000.

Single-family housing starts in February were at a rate of 357,000; this is 1.1 percent (±11.0%)* above the January figure of 353,000.The February rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 212,000.

Calculated Risk: One month does not make a trend - and the graph(above) shows this is just a slight increase in total starts (and single family starts are basically flat with the record low).　

Briefing: The outlook for housing had started to improve in the late summer. Existing and new home sales were stabilizing. The outlook for housing now depends a great deal on highly unpredictable political actions and an improvement in the economic national mood. The outlook is certainly not good, but there is still a chance that actions are taken to stabilize the housing industry at current low levels of activity.