Latest from Mag

Plenty of executive appointments over the past two weeks. Here’s Electrical Marketing’s expanded coverage of personnel changes in the electrical market.
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Wire man John Pasqual and lighting rep Jack Melnick
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Electrical product prices remained on their flat trend, showing no change from October and little change in almost all major product categories.
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Privately-owned housing starts in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 861,000, 3% below the revised October estimate, but 21.6% above the Nov. 2011 rate.
Dec. 21, 2012
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Veteran reps form new agency in Raleigh; WinWholesale buys Lloyd Graves in Texas; United Electric Supply expands through acquisition; and more.
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Dec. 21, 2012
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered an update on the city’s plans to renovate its infrastructure to withstand future storms.
Dec. 7, 2012

August Housing Starts Down Marginally from 17-Year High; Building Permits Up

Indicating continuing strength in the nation’s housing market, home builders began work on new homes and apartments at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.82 million units in August, the Commerce Department reported. This marked a 3.8 percent decline from July’s revised number, which was the highest in 17 years.
Sept. 26, 2003
2 min read

Indicating continuing strength in the nation’s housing market, home builders began work on new homes and apartments at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.82 million units in August, the Commerce Department reported. This marked a 3.8 percent decline from July’s revised number, which was the highest in 17 years.

Meanwhile, issuance of building permits surged 4.8 percent to its highest level this year, at a 1.89 million-unit rate, and the backlog of unused permits moved up to 179,200 units.

“This is unquestionably a strong report,” said Kent Conine, president of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home and apartment builder from Dallas. “Builders are clearly reacting to continued strong demand for single-family homes, which is being fueled by historically low interest rates and solid home-price performance. And it looks like there’s plenty of momentum for housing heading toward the end of the year.”

“The performance of residential building starts and permits through the last two months virtually guarantees another strong contribution from housing to GDP growth for the third quarter,” added NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. “One very positive recent development has been the downward movement of long-term mortgage rates from their highs in early September.”

Both single-family and multifamily housing starts receded from their impressive July pace in August. A 4.0 percent decline brought single-family starts to a still-strong 1.48 million-unit rate while a 3.1 percent decline brought multifamily starts to a 344,000-unit pace.

Building permits in August rose 4.8 percent to a healthy 1.89 million-unit pace, seasonally adjusted, with single-family building permits rising nearly 3 percent to an all-time record of 1.475 million units. Multifamily building permits posted a 12.3 percent gain to a 411,000-unit rate.

“Today’s report, together with our latest builder surveys revealing very positive expectations for sales heading into 2004, is ample evidence for NAHB to raise its forecast for housing starts this year to 1.76 million units — up about 3 percent from last year’s healthy production,” said Seiders.