Thursday, May 17, 2012

Bright Spots in the Economy

Three bits of good news for the American economy came out yesterday:

* Housing starts rose 2.1 percent in April, a number that is made even more impressive by the fact that March's numbers also got revised upward, so that growth was beginning from a higher place to begin with. The rise in housing starts was also higher than the  consensus forecast.

* Industrial production grew at a pace of 1.1 percent in April. That's the biggest monthly growth figure we've seen since December 2010, and like the housing-starts number, it was well higher than expected.

*Finally, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that the number of mortgages that were more than 30 days late has dropped to its lowest level since 2008. The percentage of home loans in delinquency is now down to 7.4 percent; as recently as 2010, that figure was over 10 percent.

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