It has been a long time since the housing outlook here in the U.S. was a truly positive one, but right now building permits are soaring. It hasn’t looked good for a number of reasons. Most notably, the poor housing outlook has been associated with the average consumers lack of confidence in the market itself. That concern seems to be subsiding, as the U.S. Commerce Department released statistics that pointed out building permits for new homes rose by 30% from June of last year. The release of statistics shows that people are gaining confidence, and starting to spend and invest some of that money that they were previously sitting on here in the U.S.
Housing starts and building permits both rose sharply in the month of June and hit eight-year highs. Proving that the numbers were not an anomaly, either, it was revealed that the figures were an increase of more than 9.8% from May in the month of June. The trend is clearly pointed upward and it’s a good sign for the housing market, but also for the general sake of our economy.
The specific number of building permits that were accounted for in the month of June for house building was 1.343 million. This is a figure that economists didn’t expect to see hit this soon, and was something that many had expected for next year or the year after. However, it is just one of the many signs that good things are being done within the economy. David Crowe of NAHB pointed out that, “This month’s reading is in line with recent data showing stronger sales in both the new and existing home markets as well as continued job growth.”
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The only uncertainty that the housing market faces at this point has to do with interest rates and how they might shift in the coming months. Many have been expecting a shift upward, but this is something that the reserve has been careful of, watching things carefully along the way. At this point, it is a positive sign to see more people building homes. However, there is still a great deal of opportunity in places where the housing market – even for homes already built – continues to struggle.
In time though, with figures like this, it is very likely that things will continue getting better on this front and as far as the housing market as a whole is concerned. Patience with something like this is obviously necessary. This will have an overwhelming impact on the economy as a whole, though, too. The confidence people have in building homes definitely reflects to the ability for people to spend more in our economy. Clearly, if people are willing to, and able to, invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in a home – the economy as a whole stands to gain a lot from that sale or build.
