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Another bright spot is starting to emerge in the nation's gloomy financial picture.

Boston Business Journal reports that building permits and housing starts hit their highest level in nine months in August -- the fourth straight month showing an increase. Building permits rose 2.7 percent in August.

Housing starts refers to the number of privately-owned homes on which construction was started.

This is good news given that this recession kicked off with a housing crisis, which hit the construction industry especially hard. An increase in construction could mean the housing market's worst days are behind us.

The Commerce Department report indicates that the increase applied only to multifamily homes and apartments. Housing starts for single-family homes continued to drop another 3 percent.

On Wednesday, the National Association of Homebuilders reported its homebuilder confidence index rose for the third consecutive month in September, hitting its highest level in 18 months.

New home sales rose 9.6 percent in July, the biggest monthly increase in sales in more than four years.

Again, we're looking on the bright side. The L.A. Times reports that August's housing starts were still 29.6 percent below where they were last year at this time, which was the worst year since the the federal government starting tracking the data in 1959.

So we may not be headed directly into another boom, but at least we're trending away from last year's dreadful bust.

Photo courtesy of rednk via Flickr.