US Housing Starts Lower than Expected

October 20, 2009 Share Print 0

Although the number was still in positive territory, the expectation from analyst was for a more solid improvement. The lower figures speak to a lack of recovery in consumer spending and that is being felt by the construction industry and employment in general.

Housing starts rose by 0.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 590,000 homes, compared with a revised figure of 587,000 in August.

But the rate was still down by 28.2% on the 822,000 homes started in September 2008, the Commerce Department said.

Analysts had expected a rate of more than 600,000 housing starts.

BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.