Stats, charts, comments on: latest jobs, housing, inflation, manufacturing releases.

Home construction turning the corner? Latest data and charts.

Quick recap today’s stats (w/charts) on jobs, housing, manufacturing, consumer

A lot is being made of Tuesday’s October homebuilder’s index increasing to 18 from 14, the highest reading in 17 months. The headline “jump” is nice, but overall the index is still weak. Wednesday’s October housing starts and building permits numbers also attracted some notice as housing starts increased 15.0% in September. For the third [...]

Inflation (September 2011) – CPI – Month/Month (overall) +0.3% – CPI – Year/Year (overall) +3.9% – CPI – Month/Month (core) +0.1% – CPI – Year/Year (core) +2.0%. -There are several stories behind this data. The first is that the only lasting effect of QE II was inflation of commodity prices. The second may be that [...]

Housing Starts – August Housing Starts were 571,000. – Previous was 604,000. Consensus was 592,000. – This is down 5% and a 3-month low. – Permits were 620,000. – Previous was 597,000. Consensus was 590,000. – Full report – 1,500,000 Housing Starts are required to house the increasing population. Housing Starts well below that have [...]

Housing Starts -Starts – Level – Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) – 604,000. -Previous was 629,000. -Permits – Level – SAAR 597,000. Previous was 624,000. The housing sector is an important part of the economy because housing construction creates so many other jobs, most of them domestic. The lack of sustained recovery may be due [...]

Last week, June housing starts were 629k annualized vs. 549k for May. It was the highest since January. But housing starts have averaged 400k annualized during the post-bubble years, the lowest in decades according to San Francisco Fed research published yesterday. The paper explores factors affecting weak housing starts and concludes that residential construction will [...]

Housing -Housing Starts (annualized): 629k June vs. 549k May, highest since Jan. -Housing Permits (annualized): 624k June vs. 609k May -Homebuilder confidence flat in June (from 7/18) -Graphs below puts Starts/Permits in perspective -There must be 1.5m Housing Starts a year to keep pace with population growth assuming that the number of people per household [...]

Housing: -May Starts 560,000 (annualized), up 3.5% from April, above 540k expected. -May Permits 612,000 (annualized), up 8.7% from April, most in 2011. -We need about 1,500,000 Housing Starts a year to keep pace with population growth and units scrapped to disaster or obsolescence. Jobs: -414,000 for week ended June 11, down 16,000 from previous [...]