Late springs warms up housing
Spring and summer are often a hopeful time for anyone involved in the housing economy. Houses show well. Potential buyers go looking. Homebuilders are building.
Bad winter weather in early 2015 made for a poor start to the year for housing. But figures for April suggest the housing economy might finally be on the rebound. “Improvement in housing really has been a missing piece to this recovery,” says Michael Baele, managing director of U.S. Bank’s wealth management division. “And we are encouraged to see some better numbers.”
Here are some key recent housing indicators:
• Housing starts rose 20 percent in April. (U.S. Census PDF)
• Permits were up 10 percent in April. (U.S. Census PDF)
• New home sales have increased from 434,000 units (annualized) in the third quarter of 2014, to 513,000 units in the first quarter of 2015. (U.S. Census PDF)
• Existing home sales fell 3.3 percent in April. (National Association of Realtors PDF)
• The one-month supply of homes rose by 0.7 to 5.3 months in April. (National Association of Realtors PDF)
• The median price of a single-family home rose 10 percent from April 2014 to April 2015. (National Association of Realtors PDF)
• Construction payrolls were up by 45,000 in April. Year-over-year construction employment has increased by 280,000. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
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