More bad news today, this time from the Department of Commerce. New home construction is way down this year, falling well short of last year's numbers and, more troubling, way behind a recently revised annual projection. Economist Patrick Newport was quoted in a Bloomberg News article saying, "the home-construction industry is still in a deep recession and will remain there probably for the rest of the year."
Housing construction dropped 6.2 percent last month and the projected annual rate of 895,00 is the lowest number since January 1991. The statistics failed to meet the modest projections of economists, who earlier this summer predicted the annual rate would be in the mid-900,000's. The uncertainty may reflect even more difficult times ahead, bad news for people in California and Florida who've been dealing with the depressed market for some time.
