11/02/2011

U.S. house building rises

Builders began work on more U.S. homes than forecast in September with housing starts rising by 15% to an annualised rate of 658,000 – the highest since April 2010, the US Commerce Department reported this week in Washington.

 There has been a surge in apartment construction as the housing slump turns more Americans into renters.

 “Housing numbers are getting better,” says Brian Jones, a senior U.S. economist at Societe Generale in New York. A recent survey by Bloomberg predicted that the median number of housing starts in the US needs to be about 590,000 a year,

 Work on multifamily homes jumped 51.3 percent in September from the prior month to an annual rate of 233,000, the most since October 2008. New construction of single-family houses increased 1.7 percent to a 425,000 rate.

 The vacancy rate for apartments dropped in the third quarter to 5.6%, its lowest level since 2006, according to an Oct. 6 report from Reis Inc.

P4P Comment

More Americans are now looking to rent than buy. This is good news for P4P clients who own U.S. foreclosed homes.