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Wells Fargo: Housing Will Likely Be An Upside Surprise in 2015
Wells Fargo Special Commentary, February 13, 2015:
So far this year has been dominated by news of plummeting oil prices, deflation worries in Europe and the return of financial market volatility. Despite the tumult in the financial markets, the majority of economic news remains upbeat. Job growth has picked up over the past few months, motor vehicle sales have increased and consumer confidence has risen to its highest level of the expansion.
The housing data are also looking a bit better, with new home sales rising solidly in December and mortgage rates and credit conditions continuing to ease. We raised our housing forecast earlier this year and remain optimistic. Home sales and new home construction should be one of the significant upside surprises for the economy in 2015 and we feel better about the prospects for 2016 as well.
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U.S. Census Bureau: U.S. Housing Starts Slip 2%
Feb 18, 2015, WASHINGTON, DC -- Housing starts in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.065 million. This is 2% below the revised December estimate, but is 18.7% above the January 2014 rate of 897,000.
Building permits were also lower in January, slipping to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.053 million, which is 0.7% below the revised December rate.
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