Given the importance of housing markets in the evolution of the economy, I will spend a bit more time discussing the performance of this sector over the past five years and the factors that are likely to shape the adjustment process that is now under way.
From a trough of fewer than 1.5 million units at an annual rate during the recession of 2000, starts of new single-family and multifamily homes rose to a post-World War II high of 2.2 million units last year.