After a rush of home-building in October, November turned out to be a little muted. Much of that you can blame on Sandy — the storm definitely seems to have slowed down construction in the Northeast.

In terms of the bigger picture, though, the Midwest and the South continue to improve, points out John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo.

“I think the other point that’s important to recognize,” he adds, “is that over the last three months, both single family and multi-family housing starts have risen compared to the three months before.”

Silvia takes that as a sign that the housing market appears to have good forward momentum.