Landscape Architecture Magazine

The U.S. Commerce Department reported 760,000 annualized housing starts in June, the most since October 2008. Housing starts have been on the climb for four quarters now, which hasn’t happened since 2005. The multifamily sector is a major reason for the jump. Bloomberg Businessweek posits the housing market has finally hit bottom and is beginning to recover. But we’re not totally out of the woods yet. The Christian Science Monitor quotes IHS Global Insights saying that 1.5 million units would need to be constructed if the economic climate were “normal,” a rate they don’t expect until 2015. And the New York Times notes: “The broader American economy has looked weaker as of late. If the recovery failed and the country tipped back into recession, housing would also suffer.” It points out that new permits for building homes declined slightly in June.