Fannie Mae: Housing Starts to Triple by 2013

Federally sponsored lender Fannie Mae is predicting housing starts to triple by 2013 to 1.5 million starts, returning the industry to 2007 levels, about 30% below the 2006 housing-start peak of 2.2 million starts. According to the agency’s economic outlook, housing starts are predicted to increase 17.3% and hit 710,000 this year, well below 1991's housing-start nadir. Another 47% increase to 1.1 million starts in 2012 starts to look like the beginning of the 1992 recovery, and another gain of 42% in 2013 would bring the market to nearly 1.5 million -- around the market level of 1997 to 1999. (More at LoanRateUpdate.com . . . )