According to Trulia’s chief economist Ralph McLaughlin, new-home starts and and completions were up in February, growing by 3 percent and 5.4 percent year-over-year, respectively. However, McLaughlin notes that neither of these numbers is statistically significant, as we can’t be sure whether the actual number of starts and completions in February was up, down, or flat. There’s a long way to go before starts and completions are back to normal. He says we should also pay attention to the fact that permits—which do tend to be statistically significant— were down 6.2 percent month-over-month in February.
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