Housing Starts at 17-1/2-Year Low

Housing starts in August were down a whopping 33 percent from year earlier levels.
The starts on new homes was a 17-1/2 year low, the Commerce Department reported today.

Starts on new homes dropped to 895,000, their lowest since January 1991.

The August rate of starts on single-family homes fell 1.9 percent to 630,000, which also was the softest rate since the start of 1991.

While many are calling this number "bleak", it is actually a good thing in the that the fewer number of new starts, the sooner the huge number of homes that are now in inventory and up for sale will be cleared from the market.

-Robert Wenzel