New Construction Hits 3-Year High; Jobless Claims Up

Housing starts rose 5.5% in December, the Commerce Department said Friday, as a drop in new construction in western states was offset by improvements in other parts of the country.

About 1.2 million new houses and apartments were built in 1992, the department said, up 18.5% from the previous year and the highest level of new construction since 1989.

But the surprisingly good news was tempered by another government report that said new claims for unemployment benefits reached their highest level in nearly two months.

The Labor Department said the number of Americans submitting new claims for unemployment benefits rose by 17,000 to 361,000 in the week ended Jan. 9. It was the second straight weekly rise and brought unemployment to its highest level in seven weeks.

The Commerce Department said housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.3 million units in December, up from a revised rate of 1.23 million in November and 16.5% faster than the pace of a year earlier.

Starts in California and the rest of the western region dropped 4.9%, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 293,000 units. Construction jumped 32.8% in the Northeast, 7.9% in the Midwest and 4.3% in the South, the Commerce Department said.

“California is still dragging down the overall numbers, but the rest of the country is definitely in a real estate recovery,” said David Seiders, an economist with the National Assn. of Home Builders.

Seiders and other analysts said West Coast builders are still suffering from the recession and continuing layoffs in many of its biggest industries, including aerospace and banking.

“California was the last state to enter the recession and it looks like we’ll be the last to pull out of it,” said Ben Bartolotto, research director of the Construction Industry Research Board in Burbank. “The market is recovering, but it won’t get well overnight.”

Housing Starts Gain

Yearly U.S. housing starts in millions of units

1992: 1.20 million

Source: Commerce Department