Home Starts Jump With "Perfect Aphrodisiac"

January housing starts surged ahead by double digits in spite of rising inventories. "With cheap mortgages the perfect aphrodisiac, the American love affair with housing continues and developers are more than willing to comply with their customers wishes," said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors. "Low mortgage rates trump everything else as the housing market continues to boom along."

Upon looking at the Census data, one discovers the increase is steepest when compared to January 2004. "Privately-owned housing starts in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2,159,000. This is 4.7 percent above the revised December estimate of 2,063,000 and is 11.6 percent above the January 2004 rate of
1,934,000".