Housing Starts Up 21%? Let’s Hope Not

``Homebuilders themselves however, do not share Crowe’s optimism. The NAHB announced today... ts confidence index, which measures builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months, came in flat at a reading of 16 in January, matching expectations according to consensus estimates listed on Briefing.com. Any reading below 50 indicates poor sentiment. The index has not been above 50 since April 2006.''