US Housing Starts - October 17, 2012
The slow
and steady recovery in the US housing market continued in September. Total US
housing starts surged to a four year high of 872,000 units at a seasonally
adjusted annual rate (SAAR). Building permit data, a proxy for future housing
starts, rose to 894,000 (SAAR), suggesting that strong home-building momentum
will be sustained. While September starts are clearly a positive development
for the US economy, it is worth remembering that new home construction in the US
is still only about half of what it was before the sub-prime mortgage crisis.
Prior to the US housing crisis, BC exported an
average of $7 billion a year in wood products to the United States. As of last
year, that number had fallen over 60 per cent to just $2.5 billion. Over the
next two years, as the US housing market starts returning to normal, the BC
economy should benefit through increased export sales and employment in
forestry, and manufacturing.
Source: British Columbia Real Estate Association