Housing Starts Post Unexpected Increase

Lately, there have been great signs in the news about a slow turn around in the home market. The latest out this morning that home construction increased unexpectedly in April and showed surprising vigor - something we have not seen in the past two years. It's the biggest increase in home construction - a great indicator.

Building permits rose as well and signals optimism for the anything related to housing. Exact figures show that housing starts increased 8.2% to a seasonally adjusted 1.032 million annual rate.

But we find that these figures are from a higher by a surge in apartment building construction, the Commerce Department said. If so, maybe this is the whiplash effect from so many foreclosures. People have to live somewhere and apartment construction is going to accommodate them.

Starts plunged by a revised 13.8% in March to 954,000. Economists expected April starts to drop by 1.4% to a 934,000-unit annual rate - but they didn't and we are happy for any news of this sort.