WASHINGTON — Maybe the U.S. economy’s strength this winter wasn’t just weather-related after all.
Home construction is near a three-year high. And factory output has risen in three of the year’s first four months.
The data released Wednesday suggest that growth in the April-June quarter is off to a good start, helped by falling gas prices and solid hiring gains. Fears of a spring slump are easing.
“It’s all very encouraging,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. “Things look good at the moment.”
Builders broke ground in April at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 717,000 homes, the Commerce Department said. That nearly matches January’s pace, the best since October 2008.
Construction rose for single-family homes and apartments.
Some economists have noted that a warm winter led companies to move up some hiring and accelerate other activity — including homebuilding — that normally wouldn’t occur until spring. That gave the appearance that the economy had strengthened in January and February and weakened in March.
U.S. manufacturing, one of the strongest areas of the economy since the recession technically ended nearly three years ago, also rebounded in April after a March lull. Factory output is 18.3 percent higher than its low hit in June 2009.
And gas prices have dropped in the past month after surging earlier this year. The price of benchmark U.S. crude oil fell by $1.17 to finish at a seven-month low of $92.81 per barrel. It is down nearly 13 percent since the beginning of May.
