Elliott Pollack on housing. The bolding is mine.
According to R.L. Brown, 1,303 new single family permits were issued in Greater Phoenix in July. This was an increase of 108.8% over July 2011. While this gets Greater Phoenix to a level of new housing that is about half the norm, it is a significant improvement from the past few years and will result in an increase in construction and other housing related jobs that are very important to the recovery of the area’s economy.
The median price of a resale home us up over 33% from a year ago. This is good news since fewer existing home owners will be under water and will be more likely to benefit from the positive wealth effect.