Housing Market Surged in February
March 17, 2009 by Stephen Kersey
Filed under Business
Although the national housing crisis has had a major hand in the economic troubles facing the United States, Tuesday brought some unexpected good news. In the month of February, housing starts were up more than 20%.
House Under Construction - Source: Flickr
The biggest reason for the jump was in the apartment buildings sector of the report. Compared to the previous month, construction of apartments was up more than 80%.
Due to this housing report, which was released by the Commerce Department, the stock market rallied. For the day, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 2.5% to finish at 7,395.70. Other indexes also showed improvements including the Standard & Poor’s 500 (up 3.2%), the NASDAQ composite index (up 4.1%) and the Russell 2000 (up 4.5%).
Though the numbers appear promising, housing experts caution that this news isn’t concrete evidence that the housing market is in recovery. History has shown that the housing reports during winter months can vary wildly due the weather. Even after the more than 20% month-to-month jump, housing starts are still down almost 50% from a year ago.
Source: Wire Reports
Image: Dean Terry
