Quarterly single-family housing starts. The quarterly numbers of single-family housing starts (in thousands of dwellings) in the United States from 2017 through 2019 are recorded below.

a. Using Quarter 1, 2017, as a base period, calculate the simple index for this quarterly time series.

b. Interpret the simple index for Quarter 2, 2018.

c. By what percentage did the number of housing starts change between Quarter 1, 2017, and Quarter 4, 2019?

d. By what percentage did the number of housing starts increase between Quarter 1, 2018, and Quarter 4, 2019? Year Quarter Housing Starts 2017 1 144 2017 2 180 2017 3 168 2017 4 148 2018 1 158 2018 2 194 2018 3 171 2018 4 138 2019 1 153 2019 2 181 2019 3 176 2019 4 163 Source: FRED, Economic Research, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (fred.stlouisfred.org).