Housing is the economy's bright spot

Here's where things stand on the economy.

It's OK, not great. But one piece of the economy is starting to show real strength: construction. Manufacturing is stalling.

Construction spending in October rose to an annualized $872.1 billion, up 1.4% from September and up 9.6% from October 2011, the Commerce Department said Monday. Residential spending rose to an annualized $294.2 billion, up 3% from September and 20.8% from October 2011.

Nonresidential construction spending was up 0.3% in October from September and up 10.7% from October 2011.

The construction put dollars to increasing evidence of a housing recovery after a near collapse of markets in many metro areas. Places like Phoenix, Miami, Las Vegas and Bend, Ore., saw sales and prices plummet starting in 2007.

Single-family construction spending was $141.3 billion, up 3.6% from September and 29% from a year earlier. Apartment construction, at $23.9 billion, was up 6.2% from September and 53.2% from a year earlier.

Housing starts are starting to push higher, and new-home sales are building. (New-home sales were off very slightly in October from September but up substantially from the year before.) The gains, however, are not uniform across all markets, however.

Offsetting the decent news on construction was a surprisingly weak report on manufacturing from the Institute for Supply Management. The ISM's latest report suggested manufacturing contracted in November after two months of modest increases.

The overall economy continues to grow, the report said.

The ISM's manufacturing index fell to 49.5% from 51.7% in October. The November level was the lowest in three years.

Of the 18 manufacturing industries covered by the report, only six showed gains: oil and coal; paper; furniture (a reflection of the housing recovery and increasing consumer confidence); electrical equipment; appliances; food and beverage and computers and electronic equipment.

Both exports and imports declined.

The biggest reason cited for the decline was worries about the fiscal cliff, the combination of tax increases and federal spending cuts set to kick in some time in 2013.

What's not clear is how much Superstorm Sandy affected manufacturing. One respondent, from a primary metals company, told the ISM that the storm affected some shipments.

Some manufacturers see strength ahead. Ford Motor (F) announced Monday it expected to boost production in the first quarter of 2013 by 11% to 750,000 vehicles. The company reported November sales rose 6% from a year ago.

Disappointment with the ISM reason was cited as a reason for the stock market's lackluster performance Monday.

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