ARLINGTON, Va.—For more than a year, Mike Harwood held off buying a new pickup truck for his landscaping business because of the slumping housing market.
The uptick in housing starts is good news for auto makers. Contractors, electricians and landscapers are returning to showrooms and powering Ford, GM and Chrysler. Mike Ramsey has details on Lunch Break. Photo: Chrysler.
But in the past few months, more lots have been cleared for construction and his phone has been ringing more frequently. So in June he went out and bought a new Chevrolet 2500 diesel truck with a backup camera and a hands-free Bluetooth phone link.
"There is a lot more steady and consistent work," said the 30-year-old Mr. Harwood, whose company Broadleaf Landscape, in Damascus, Md., does a lot of work at new homes. "I was more comfortable with buying a new truck at this point in time because of the market change."
Mr. Harwood's optimism bodes well for Detroit auto makers. Home construction is the most important driver of light-truck sales, and pickups are big profit makers for General Motors Co., GM -0.83% Ford Motor Co. F -1.09% and Chrysler Group LLC.