Housing Seen Rising to 3-Year High With Boost for Jobs

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may be about to get help in his attempt to boost the economy, from an industry at rock-bottom: housing. Job growth, even with unemployment at 9.4 percent or higher since May 2009, and an increasing U.S. population mean home construction probably will improve in 2011 from its near-record low, said Charles Lieberman, chief investment officer at Advisors Capital Management LLC in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Mortgage rates are less than 5 percent, further supporting affordability. A rise in homebuilding would increase jobs for construction workers and also for people in industries supplying the stoves and sinks that go into new homes. As housing shrank to the smallest share of the economy on record, 2.23 percent, job growth slowed. The economy added 39,000 jobs in November; 5,000 construction jobs were lost.

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