It was announced this week that overall, housing starts dipped a little for the month of July.  This is not great news, however, there is a silver lining.

The major dip in housing starts in July occured in multi-family units, but single-family housing,  the core of the housing market, actually rose in July.  The number of single family homes increased 1.7% in July.  The number of single family building permits rose 5.8% last month. 

This highlights the need to understand individual data points, and not just the overall picture.  This is an uphill climb, but the single-family housing market is showing continued signs of improvement.