Housing Starts & Sentiment down. Industrial Production up.

Housing Starts (December 2013)

– Starts seasonally adjusted, annualized   999,000. Previous month was 1,107,000
– Permits seasonally adjusted, annualized  986,000. Previous month was 1,017,000.

The decline is in both single-family and multi-family. “Single-family” is anything which is 1-4 units.  Multi-family is 5 units and up.  The report from the Census Bureau states that an estimated 923,400 housing units were started in 2013.  To keep pace with population growth and assuming a constant level of people per household we should have about 1,500,000 Housing Starts per year.

 

Industrial Production (November 2013)

– Production Month/Month +0.3%. Previous was +1.0%
– Capacity Utilization Rate  79.2%. Previous was 79.1%.

Manufacturing has been on a healthy path of growth lately.

 
Consumer Sentiment (January 2014)

– Sentiment 80.4. Previous was 82.5.

This is the University of Michigan survey.  Consumer Sentiment is supposed to be a leading indicator of Consumer Spending.