Housing Starts Set Another Record

Single-family housing starts jumped 12.8% in January as warm weather sent the pace of construction up to a record level.The U.S. Census Bureau reported that single-family starts rebounded to a record seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.82 million in January, up from a 1.61 million rate in December. December starts were revised upward by 36,000 units. "Once again it seems the death of the housing market has been greatly exaggerated," RBS Greenwich Capital chief economist Stephen Stanley said. However, he said he believes the housing market is "cooling" and housing activity will "slowly moderate, not collapse." Mr. Stanley said he expects home sales to slow more than starts because builders have such a tremendous backlog of orders. "Some of the big builders have begun to report higher cancellation rates and a slower pace of new orders, so the froth seems to be evaporating," he said. The Census Bureau's construction statistics can be found online at http://www.census.gov/const/www/index.html.