November Construction Spending
Market participants are under no illusions regarding the real estate market, despite today’s slightly better than expected data. November Construction Spending is expected to have drop 0.4%, a better reading than the -.8% in September but certainly not a recovery of any kind. Indeed, with tight credit conditions, falling prices and some fear of recession creeping into the economy, its difficult to see how this number could not disappoint. In fact, the pattern of data suggests a revisit to sub -1% level (September 06) is not out of the question. The only area in which the report might be able to pull out on the upside is in public spending which has been rising rather steadily since last year - up 14.6% year on year.