A Modest Increase In Housing Starts

Construction of new homes went up in September.

With more than a trillion dollars spent to revive the housing market, you'd think it would be doing better than it is.

All these bailouts have cost us an arm and a leg but where's the payoff? The economy keeps getting worse. Unemployment keeps rising. Not many people will be buying new homes if they can't keep a job.

On Nov. 30, a key government $8,000 subsidy to buy a new home expires.

Reuters says: Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect construction of new homes and apartments to rise by a modest 2 percent in September. The Commerce Department will release the report at 8:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

Construction of single-family homes and apartments rose by 1.5 percent in August to an annual rate of 598,000 units, the highest level since November 2008. However, even with that gain, housing activity remained 70 percent below the peak hit in 2006.

Economists also said the advance in overall construction starts in August came solely from a rebound in the volatile multifamily sector which surged 25.3 percent after having fallen by 15.2 percent in July.