According to this month’s U.S. Census Bureau report regarding the new residential construction statistics for January 2012 there was a slight increase in housing starts and building permits.
Privately owned Housing starts increased in January 2012: the seasonally adjusted annual rate reached 699,000 compared with 689,000 in December 2011 – this is a 1.5% decrease; furthermore, the annual rate for January 2012 was 9.9% above the January 2011 rate of 636,000.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of building permits for privately owned housing reached in January 2012 676,000 – a 0.7% increase compared with December’s annual rate of 671,000. The January 2012 rate was 19% above the rate in January 2011.
This news provides a positive signal for the progress of the U.S real estate market.
As I have stated in the past, there is a supposed lagged (by one day) and negative correlation between the development in housing starts and daily change in gold price; i.e. as Housing starts annual rates increases, gold price tends to decrease the following day. Therefore, the current decline in gold price might also continue tomorrow.
Current gold price, short term futures (March 2012 delivery) is traded at $1,719 per t oz. an $8.6 decrease as of 15:34*.
Euros to US dollar exchange rate is currently traded down at 1.3041 a 0.19% decrease as of 15:53*.
Current Nymex crude oil price, short term futures (March 2012 delivery) is traded down by 0.08% to $101.72 per barrel as of 15:38*.
(* GMT)
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