The U.S. housing market was supposed to give the economy a big boost this year. It isn’t turning out that way.
While sales of previously owned homes have rebounded after a weak start to the year, new-home sales are barely trending above last year’s soft levels and home construction has been flat despite historically low interest rates and a healing labor market.
Gross domestic product, the fullest measure of the U.S. economy, expanded 2.4% in the third quarter from a year earlier, driven largely by better consumer and business spending. Residential investment, though, a measure of home building and improvements, was down 0.8% from a year earlier.
Information from The Wall Street Journal
