The commerce department released the latest residental home construction numbers today, and the numbers were the lowest in over a decade.  Building permits dropped 5.9 percent to 1.307 million, the lowest since 1995.  Read the full story here.

Starts were projected to fall to a 1.35 million unit pace, from an originally reported 1.381 million in July, according to the median forecast of 77 economists polled by Bloomberg News. Estimates ranged from 1.24 million to 1.4 million. Residential construction was down 19 percent over the last 12 months.

While the problems in the housing market in the US are leading many construction firms and building materials suppliers to be concerned about the future, growth in Asia will continue to be strong over the next 3 to 5 years.  Sustained economic growth, foriegn direct investment, and the upswing in the investment cycle all are leading to forecasts of strong construction activities in East Asia.  Click here for the full story.

 ”Increasing transparency in China’s property market and higher property investment returns are attracting more foreign institutional and private equity funds to the Chinese property markets, said Adeline Wong, a senior project manager with BIS Shrapnel.

Recent research conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers highlights the continuing trend towards setting up manufacturing facilities in Vietnam.  Totally off the radar screen not long ago, Vietnam came out at the top of the list in this PwC report that ranked key emerging markets - Click here for the story.

The study looked at key data such as economic growth and taxes.  Key questions such as infrastructure and legal environments likely still remain though and are critical considerations for a long term corporate presence.  Looks good at a high level but the devil can often be in the details. 

The manufacturing output has risen 25 percent in July based on the strength of the biomedical output in Singapore. This is the sharpest rise in three years. The biomedical manufacturing sector grew by an outstanding 78 percent from a year ago.

Economists warn that this is an exception and not the rule. They also point out that the biomedical field is volatile and this growth should not be expected. Singapore is an excellent spot for the biomedical industry due to its orderly and hard-working society.

The National Association of Realtors projects that new home sales will drop from 1.05 million properties in 2006 to 860,000 homes in 2007. Buyers have shied away from home buyer due to the fluctuating stock market.   Finally, the opportunities to take advantage of lower rates that the country saw 2-3 years ago aren’t there. You can read the related story by clicking here.

It’s obvious the mood of the nation is less aggressive about buying houses but perhaps it’s just a well-needed adjustment. The big question is if this is a one-year adjustment or we’re looking at 3-5 years of slow growth.

According to a recent study by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, customer satisfaction has fallen another 3% in the last year. Customer assistance after the sale seems to be the key driver in this drop in satisfaction. Although Apple remains no. 1 in the study, its satisfaction dropped 5%. Dell also dropped 5%, yet Hewlett Packard rose 1%. It certainly looks like an opportunity for companies to improve their satisfaction ratings to ensure customer loyalty. Click here for the full story.

Silver is the most popular color for cars according to a recent study by DuPont. Silver replaced green in the year 2000. Could this have something to do with our aging demographic? Blending colors looks to be the trend on the horizon which could get very interesting. Remember Henry Ford’s famous line, “you can have any color you want in the Model T, as long as it’s black.” Click here to see the whole story.

According to a recent study by Accenture, HR is seen as an under performer in India. Executives and managers thought that HR wasn’t doing well in supporting the company’s goals which is probably what everyone ought to be doing. India is suffering from a talent crunch due to its rapidly growing and newly diverse economy. It seems that the older industries are the ones that are struggling to keep talent. Click here to see the entire story.

Research done by the American Customer Satisfaction Index shows that Honda, Nissan and Honda slipped in customer satisfaction with Nissan having the lowest rating of the Asian companies.  However, Lexus had the highest rating of all car manufacturers at 87.

For these very successful companies, it’s sure to put them on notice that no one can become complacent on quality.  You can see the whole article if you click here.