America’s new construction belt; a start to build manufacturers, supply chains and logistics throughout the category?

With the U.S. housing market still limping along, new data reveals a building boom of sorts stretching from the Carolinas and Tennessee to Texas and Colorado – and leaving large swaths of the Midwest, Florida and Northeast in the dust. Among the country’s top metro areas for new residential building permits for the first half of 2012, many are in the South, according to analysis of U.S. Census data by online real estate marketplace Trulia. Those include Austin, which tops the list with 11.5 permits per 1,000 existing housing units, followed by Charleston (8.6) and Raleigh (8.5). The new construction, of course, bodes well for these cities and their states, since “markets with construction are those that have long-term growth potential, room to build, and lower vacancy rates,” says Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia, which is based in San Francisco. Read about the revolution...