In the month of October, housing starts have risen to 3.6% and hold a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 894,000 units, the Commerce Department reports. The reported percent increase of housing starts was the highest rate since July 2008. It is important to keep this number in mind and understand that starts are now only 40% of the 2.27 million peak that was attained in January 2006. The rise was due to an 11.9% increase in starts for multi-family homes, while the demand for single-family homes remained consistent at 594,000 units.

Provincially, housing starts in the West rose 17.2% and 8.9% in the Midwest. Housing starts decreased 2.5% in the South and 6.5% in the Northeast, due largely to Hurricane Sandy. Building permits, which are guides as to how well new homes will sell, dropped by 2.7% in October.

The resale of homes increased within the month of October due to the development of the job market. The National Association of Realtors stated on Monday that the sales of existing homes rose a surprising 2.1% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.79 million units. A Reuters poll predicted that last month’s seasonally adjusted annual rate would have been 4.75 million units, making a .01% unexpected jump.

Throughout the nation, existing homes were sold at an average of $178,000, up 11.1% from just one year ago, while the amount of resale homes on the market fell by 1.4%. Distressed sales are down 24%, flat from September, compared to 28% in October 2011. If existing homes continue to sell at their current rate, inventories would be exhausted in 5.4 months, the lowest rate since February 2006.