New Housing Starts and Permits moved forward in May from the lows set in prior months. Housing starts increased 17.2% to an annual rate of 523,000 units according to the Commerce Department. Additionally, New Building Permits rose 4% the largest gain since June of last year.
These are encouraging numbers, inparticular if we can continue to see Building Permits increase over the next few qtrs. Since Building permits indicate future growth, that will certainly be a positive sign.