Housing Starts Miss Estimates, Up 3.6% Annualized

[Jordan]

Housing starts for October rose 3.6 percent to an annual pace of 894,000. This followed a giant 15.1 percent revised surge in September and a 3.0 percent gain in August. October's gain was centered in the West and Midwest with the South posting a small decline and the Northeast, which was hit by Hurricane Sandy at month end, posting a sizable decline. Yet the Commerce Department said the effect of the hurricane on October's results was minimal. It noted houses that have to be completely rebuilt because of the storm will be counted as new homes. Showing less strength in the month were permits which fell 2.7 percent to an annual pace of 866,000. But this followed an 11.1 percent surge in September.

http://bloomberg.econoday.com/byshow...byweek.asp#top

[Zippyjuan]

The rebuilding after Sandy will give housing construction a bigger bump than would have happened without the storm. As the article points out:

It noted houses that have to be completely rebuilt because of the storm will be counted as new homes.

Construction typically slows this time of year anyways due to worse weather to be doing projects (which is why they look at either "seasonally adjusted" figures or numbers compared to same month a year ago. Still encouraging.