Benign Billets

July new housing sales were slightly disappointing at 627,000, but they’re up 7.2% YTD and should end 2018 up at least 6% compared to 2017. For the macro economy, it doesn’t much matter. Back in 2003, well before the Housing Boom, residential fixed investment, which includes new single-family and multifamily construction, renovations, and broker commissions constituted 5.5% of GDP; housing is now just 4% of GDP, a decline of 27%.