According to a Reuters survey, new construction of homes in the United States and permits for future buildings are on the rise. The actual numbers are supposed to come out today.

Chief economist Chris Low from the FTN Financial group in New York said, “New home sales have improved in recent months and new home inventories are likely to fall to a 27 year low in September, but there are still about twice as many existing homes on the market as there were the last time sales were this weak, suggesting it is still a very difficult environment for homebuilders.”

Luckily, the housing market may actually be showing signs of getting better. The housing market is the worst that it has been since the 1930′s and the slump actually began in 2006 but didn’t become widespread for a few years.

“We forecast residential investment will add to growth in the third quarter, the first positive contribution since the fourth quarter of 2005, and contribute an average of 0.8 percentage points to quarterly growth next year,” said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Barclays Capital in New York.

“As for home prices, we believe the freefall has decidedly ended but that it is too early to call the bottom. Moreover, foreclosures are likely to flow into the market at an accelerating pace, weighing on prices.”

Like the cash for clunkers program, there is a government incentive for new home buyers right now. There is an $8,000 government tax credit for those buying their first home that is set to expire next month. There are also expected to be more foreclosures on the market throughout the end of the year. When there are more foreclosures on the market, new homes won’t sell because many buyers find foreclosures can be too good of a deal to pass up.

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The 81-82 recession, as well as the 73-75 recession, lasted 16 months. We will beat that figure if the current recession reaches past April.

Headlines comparing today’s recession to that of 81-82:

• In January, reports showed 207,000 manufacturing jobs vanished in the largest one-month drop since October 1982.
• Major automakers’ U.S. sales extended their deep slump in February, putting the industry on track for its worst sales month in more than 27 years.
• Struggling homebuilders have just completed the worst year for new home sales since 1982.
• There are 12.5 million people out of work today, topping the number of jobless in 1982.

Currently, the unemployment rates aren’t as high and he GDP hasn’t fallen as far, but it is getting closer and closer everyday. With the awful week Wall Street had last week, we can only hope that we’ll see a bottom soon.
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