Trends in Housing Starts

Although our economy was in a recession for most of 2001, people keep building houses. Joint research by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development shows that in the 12 months ending in May 2002, there were 1,733,000 housing starts of new privately owned housing in the U.S., an increase of 8.0 percent from the volume in the year ended May 2001. There were sharp regional differences in the changes in the number of housing starts. For example, during the year ending in May 2002 housing starts rose 24.2 percent in the Northeast, but fell 0.3 percent in the Midwest. Differences in the rate of change of housing starts from April to May in 2002 and the rates of change for the year ended 2002 probably reflect, in large part, seasonal differences. For example, in the Midwest housing starts for the entire year ending in May 2002 fell slightly, whereas the starts in the month of May 2002 were 24 percent higher than in the previous month.

Source: Joint release of U.S Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Affairs