Housing starts fell in May and multi-family construction housing dropped. Single family homes went up. Housing consisted of a near .06% of Q1 GDP - which is a big deal to some.
The summer is here (sort of ) and that means the hope of ravenous home sales.
Fitch: In the Midst of a Multiyear US Housing Recovery
"Challenges remain, including restrictive credit qualification standards and narrowing affordability. Various housing and related statistics bottomed in early to mid-2009. Since then, for a time, the on-and-off, then on-again nature of the federal housing credit spurred, or at least pulled forward, primarily entry-level buyer housing demand. With the US economy moving from recession to expansion in third-quarter 2009, plus very attractive housing affordability and government incentives, housing was jump-started. However, faltering consumer confidence, among other issues, had largely restrained the recovery. New home sales and single-family starts retested the bottom during the summer of 2010 and in February 2011. During second-half 2013, the sharp rise in home prices and interest rates and the government impasse over the budget and debt ceiling led many prospective homebuyers to take a careful stance in the shorter term. Consumer caution and poor weather from early in the year restrained the gain in housing metrics in 2014. The growth in starts, especially single-family, was more robust in 2015" - Fitch Ratings Press Release