New Construction Nationally

When our friends in Washington D.C. shutdown, it meant that some data was not collected. Primarily it effected starts not permit and sales, well that is not quite true, the data below is for October. Sales were not released until December which is a month later than it would normally be and both September and October were released at the same time. The question that comes to my mind is if  you were use to making $100,000 per year for the last 50 years and  had weathered the recession and now were making $68,000 a year would say you had recovered from the recession?  As a side note the consumer price index shows  since 2005, which was the peak in building nationally, cost of living has increased by 19.45% or said another way that $100,000 today only buys $80,550 worth of living and the $68,000 only buys $54,774 worth of living

just a thought to ponder as you listen to the talking heads on TV and our friends in Washington D.C.