A Housing Recovery Is Good for Big Banks

Though these latest numbers are strong, they should be viewed in context. Housing starts remain far below numbers seen even before the real estate bubble began to inflate in the late 1990s. But even a modest uptick in residential mortgage construction can have outsized benefits for the economy, as this kind of economic activity supports job growth and spending throughout other sectors of the economy. Deutsche Bank economist Joeseph Lavorgna sees recent strength in the housing market as reason to believe that overall demand in the U.S. economy will improve in 2013.