Home construction spending up nationally

Yet more mixed signals on the housing market’s health. While reports continue to trickle out that sales prices and activity have dropped in the city as well as elsewhere in the nation, other reports have declared the housing market to be doing just fine maybe not record-setting fine, but fine nonetheless. On Thursday, the Commerce Department released a report showing home construction spending up for October over September and over October 2004. Construction spending during October was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,131.7 billion, 0.7 percent above the estimate for September and 7.9 percent above the estimate for October 2004.