WASH­ING­TON-Ea­ger to take note of signs of re­cov­ery, Pres­i­dent Oba­ma is draw­ing at­ten­tion to im­prove­ments in the hous­ing in­dus­try while keep­ing up pres­sure on Re­pub­li­cans to back poli­cies the White House says would help strug­gling home­own­ers re­fi­nance their debts.

"One of the heav­i­est drags on our re­cov­ery is get­ting lighter," Oba­ma said Sat­ur­day in his week­ly ra­dio and In­ter­net ad­dress. "Now we have to build on the progress we've made and keep mov­ing for­ward."

Oba­ma cit­ed an in­creased pace in con­struc­tion of sin­gle-fam­i­ly hous­es and apart­ments in Sep­tem­ber. The Com­merce De­part­ment said this week that last month's con­struc­tion pace was the fastest in more than four years. Home sales are al­so up com­pared with last year, though sales dipped in Sep­tem­ber from Au­gust's two-year high.

With the econ­o­my still the dom­i­nant is­sue of the pres­i­den­tial cam­paign, Oba­ma has been count­ing on vot­ers be­liev­ing that con­di­tions are im­prov­ing. But even in­di­ca­tors that are favourable to Oba­ma still don't sig­nal a strong re­cov­ery.