Manufacturing Up, Housing Down

The Washington Post‘s Neil Irwin notes that while the housing market remains in a slump, the manufacturing sector is doing reasonably well.

Here is a snippet from the article.

The diverging fortunes of the industrial and housing sectors reflect a combination of factors, most notably the excesses of housing construction during the mid-2000s that continue to hang over the residential real estate market.

“The contrast is interesting,” said Jerry Webman, chief economist at OppenheimerFunds. “Businesses, and particularly large businesses that make stuff, have cut expenses and are ready to produce again, and some even have demand backlogs.”

“With housing, on the other hand, with more supply than demand out there it’s quite sensible that homebuilders would be reluctant to produce a lot more units,” Webman said.

The full article can be read here.

– The Editors