NH Housing Construction Starts Are Up

By Mark Bevis on Tuesday, July 20, 2004.

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New housing construction across the country fell last month to its lowest level in just over a year.

The US Commerce Department reports that construction starts dropped 8.5% from its levels in May.

That wasn't good news to Wall Street.

Investors were expecting a modest increase.

But New England and New Hampshire bucked the trend.

As NHPR's Mark Bevis reports.

Economist say the fact that housing starts dropped by over 8% is not cause for worry.

New construction across the country had been going great guns for the past twelve months.

The industry was building at a rate of some 2 million units a year.

And some industry analysts say June's drop is probably a good thing, allowing the market to cool a bit.

Economist Russ Thibeault is with the New Hampshire based Applied Economic Research.

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Russ Thibeault is an economist and runs the firm Applied Economic Research based in Laconia.

For NHPR news, I'm Mark Bevis.