Housing: Where the Market is Really Headed

摘要

Amid all the ups and downs in the housing data of late, how you feel about the direction of this year's most closely watched economic sector may well depend on which day of the week you check the news. For example, on June 19, builders' sentiment sank to an 11-year low, but the next day the government reported that May housing starts jumped. A week later, numbers showed a rise in May sales of new homes, the third monthly gain in a row, followed the next day by data for May showing a second consecutive drop in sales of existing homes. What's the real story, and where is housing headed in the second half?