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Housing Starts, Canada: January 2015
Home builders in Canada largely shrugged off the woes of the oil patch as the pace of new residential construction picked up in January. Housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted 187,276 in January, increasing 4.3 per cent compared to December, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation reported February 9. Canada Housing Starts The rise in…
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US Housing Affordability Edges Up
Slightly lower interest rates and home prices in markets across the country contributed to a slight increase in nationwide housing affordability in 4Q 2014, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index Thursday. In all, 62.8 per cent of new and existing homes sold between the beginning of October and end…
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US Home Prices: 4Q 2014
During the last quarter of 2014, the United States saw solid price growth for homes, with most metro areas seeing a slightly stronger rate of growth. According to Propertywire Wednesday, this growth was due to lower levels of housing supplies combined with low interest rates and an improving jobs market, with these facts being gleaned…
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Construction Employment, US
Construction employers in the US added 39,000 jobs in January and 308,000 over the past year, reaching the highest employment total since February 2009, as the sector’s unemployment rate fell to 9.8 per cent, according to an analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America Monday. US construction employment totaled 6,314,000 in January, the highest…
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Japan 2014 North American Log Imports
Japan’s total import of North American logs in 2014 was 3,047 million cubic metres, a 10.8 per cent drop compared to the previous year. Log imports in 2013 had increased, by 14 per cent over 2012, due to looming tax hike last year. North American Timber Market 2014: Japan Kure and Kashima remain the top…
