Dive Brief:
- If anyone needed justification for not being sure what to think about this year's home-building market, turn to Merrill Lynch.
- The company had looked for 1.1 million housing starts, but now it says the rugged start of the year has caused it to "pencil in" 1.03 million.
- The question is whether the oomph that came in the last months of 2013 is a trend that will bloom again in spring or is just "noise in the data."
Dive Insight:
Right now, Merrill Lynch forecasts 11% growth in starts this year over last year, which it calls a "more muted" rebound than showed up at the end of 2013. The longer-term recovery forecast is based on formation of households and more people being able to get credit to buy homes, though when is unclear.