Housing Starts Rise | Is it the Economy or the Weather?

New apartment buildings abound

Housing starts took a big jump in February as the national rate rose 22 percent. Most of those were apartment buildings.

Apartment building construction skyrocketed 82 percent, accounting for most of the starts.

Foreclosures not down

News homes are sprouting up even as more homes every day are foreclosed and left vacant. Sales of new homes will have to compete with prices on foreclosed and auctioned properties.

Demand for rental properties

The apartment building construction makes sense, though. As families are pushed out of their homes because of foreclosure many seek are seeking rental properties. Rent doesn’t require families to try to secure personal loans.

Sign of healing or fluke?

Market analysts are not ready to say that this spike in building means the economy is headed for recovery.

“We’re inclined to write this off as a weather-related fluke for now,” wrote economists for Wrightson ICAP.

Winter is generally a very slow construction season, and housing starts historically pick up when snowy places start to thaw out.

Sunshine brings ray of hope

Though the change could be blamed on the weather, it still brings some pretty impressive news. The rise in housing starts was the biggest in 19 years. It is also the first time in eight months that housing starts have gone up instead of down. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "Housing Starts Rise | Is it the Economy or the Weather?"