Home Construction Jumps. Details & Charts.

Housing Starts (November)
-Housing Starts 685,000 (seasonally adjusted, annualized)
-Construction (measured by starts) up 9.3% in November
-Highest since April 2010 when homebuyer tax credit boosted production
-Excluding that one-time event, construction highest since October 2008
-Multifamily home constructions rose 25.3% (more on multifamily from CalculatedRisk)
-Single family home construction only rose 2.3% (this is 65% of market)

Building Permits (November)
-Building Permits 681,000 (seasonally adjusted, annualized)
-Permits are a measure of future construction
-Up 5.7% from Octoberand highest level since March 2010

These stats are another better than expected but not great bit of data and may be indicating continuing if modest recovery. The natural level for Housing Starts to keep it in line with population growth and scrappage is about 1,500,000.

-Starts/permits releases: Commerce Dept | NAHB
-Table and chart below. Click images for more.

Retail
-ICSC-Goldman Store Sales, Week/Week +3.4%
-ICSC-Goldman Store Sales, Year/Year +4.6%
-A healthy recovery from the previous bad week.

-Redbook Store Sales, Year/Year +3.4%

by Dick Lepre & Julian Hebron