The U.S. housing market, once the epicenter of the global financial collapse that spawned today’s European debt crisis, is on the verge of delivering some positive news, Reuters said.

For the first time since 2005, U.S. residential construction looks set to expand a little next year, and it could add one- or two-tenths of a percentage point to GDP
gross domestic product growth in 2012 — a mere sliver, but one that would add to the picture of a slowly healing U.S. economy.

Reports to be released this week should bolster that optimism, Reuters said.

Every scrap of extra support would help the United States withstand the spreading damage from the crisis in the eurozone, which threatens to push a global slowdown into a deeper and more dangerous recession.

China is slowing quickly as its red-hot property market cools and exports to the European Union, its largest trade partner, sink after years of double-digit growth. Its factory sector has contracted for two months in a row, and foreign investment in China is falling.

Brazil also has stalled, and India is contracting sharply. Worldwide, 48 central banks have cut interest rates in the past three months to counter the slump. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde last week called economic prospects “quite gloomy.”