Posted on 12/20/2011 1:15:24 PM PST by Nachum
The headlines were spewing optimism. Reuters: “Jump in U.S. housing starts points to recovery.”
Todays announcement of a rally in housing starts (1 unit) of New Privately Owned Housing Units Started – 1 Unit NSA – of up 2.29% in November is grossly misleading. Why? It’s that darned seasonal adjustment again!
If we use non-seasonally adjusted data (aka, raw data not tampered with), we find that 1 unit housing starts actually FELL -11.25% in November.
Declining 1 unit housing starts signals a recovery?
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I live in a suburban area that was low crime, middle to upper middle class and peaceful. Single unit construction stopped and subsidized apartments have started to pop up everywhere. The sheriff deputies spend most of their time at the complexes. A study done by the local newspaper shows that the people in the apartments come mostly from the high crime areas of the city.
The feds are subsidizing apartments and the “federal” economy has killed the single units. All by design.
Agreed. It is very Soviet of them. Destroy wealth, take over the entire private sector and heard the people like cattle into government controlled living quarters.
I know a fellow who is a salesman for kitchen and bath countertops and such. He said the vast majority of his sales are now from remodelling and building of subsidized housing.
What kind of stupid headline is that? To say it fell a negative amount, would be to say it went up...
“The sheriff deputies spend most of their time at the complexes”
As they do all over the country. If you were never taught to behave you aren’t about to start when Uncle SugarDaddy gives you a new place to live!
It should have read, “1 Unit Housing Starts Actually FELL 11.25% in November NSA”, dropping the minus sign.
What is being built is 5+ unit multi-family housing. To see these jump by 25% is amazing. What it reveals is that:
1) Fewer people can afford conventional mortgages to purchase single family homes.
2) A lot of them will be accepting section 8 and other subsidies, so the government teet continues to expand.
3) Builders build these units in down times to stay busy, especially if there are linked to a developer - build what will generate some income.
4) The glut of REO’s continues to sit and rot.
Very soviet. Take a google earth look at Russia, China, North Korea, etc. Very few single units but massive apartment block even in “rural” areas.
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