New housing experienced surprising 2% growth !

[kentuck]

Really? Do you truly believe those government numbers? We are selling houses at auction all around the country and there are foreclosures by the millions, but homebuilders are building more and more new homes?? The goernment wouldn't lie, would they?

I heard one analyst say the other day that if the government forecasts a 7% decline in new housing, for example, and then there is only a 5% decline in new housing, they interpret that as 2% growth in the new housing market. Insane? Uh..yeah.

[Horse with no Name]

1. I believe it

The fucking oil cartel is probably building their summer homes...and with oil prices this high...undoubtedly they can build SEVERAL.:mad:

[Nitrogenica]

2. The housing that is booming are low income apartments and such.

[Mist]

3. Yes, extremely fuzzy math--project 7%, it's actually 5%, VOILA! We're ahead 2%! nt

[Zynx]

8. It really isn't. That has to do with seasonal adjustments.

Let's say that new home construction normally falls 10% from April to May(unlikely, but let's just go with it) and because of unusually calm weather or some kind of short term economic benefit construction falls just 6%. The seasonal adjustment takes into account 10% drop, but if it did not occur, it appears to be growth. If this is an abberation, it will likely show up in consequent months.

[Birthmark]

4. No, I don't believe that number.

I'll believe a small lie, simply for the sake of politeness. So go ahead and stretch the truth, government. But when you actually sprain the damned truth, I take that as an insult to my intelligence.

[marmar]

5. The real number behind the faux headline numbers:

All these people getting booted from their homes will need apartments to move to.



from Bloomberg:


U.S. Builders Broke Ground on Fewest Houses Since '91 (Update3)

By Courtney Schlisserman

May 16 (Bloomberg) -- Construction of U.S. single-family houses in April dropped to the lowest level in 17 years, even as building of condominiums and townhouses rebounded.

Builders broke ground on 692,000 single-family homes at an annual rate, the fewest since January 1991, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Total housing starts jumped 8.2 percent to 1.032 million as construction of multifamily units rose 36 percent following a 35 percent drop in March.

``There may be signs that we are getting close to a bottom but we don't think we're there yet,'' said Adam York, an economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina. ``The housing market still has a ways to go towards working off its problems.''

Lower prices and other incentives have yet to revive demand for houses, indicating builders will need to come up with even more discounts to attract buyers. Stricter lending rules, job losses and growing pessimism about the economy signal sales will not rebound quickly.

Treasuries dropped in the minute after the release, before retracing some of the losses later. Yields on benchmark 10-year notes rose to 3.85 percent at 9:56 a.m. in New York, from 3.82 percent late yesterday. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aH3.rQtrE6Gw

[leftofthedial]

6. I don't believe a word that comes from any bush cabal agency

they all do a "heckuva job"

[Zynx]

7. Before everyone gets all upset, the monthly numbers vary like this due to seasonal

adjustments that are made that try to adjust for historical factors that are in place in most cases in a given month. For example, there is usually virtually no new home construction in the winter months, but if the weather improves before they expected it to, construction numbers will look ginormous due to the seasonal adjustment.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. What they said was residential starts are up ..... but that includes apartments .......

.... and that is what went up. Single family housing starts are way down.