Amid a wave of weaker than expected housing data (sales, mortgage apps, homebuyer sentiment, and homebuilder sentiment), Housing Starts were expected to rebound in May (while the more forward-looking Permits were expected to drop). Reality was worse in both cases as Housing Starts rose 3.6% MoM (less than the +3.9% MoM expected) after a massive downward revision to -12.1% MoM in April (from -9.5% MoM). Permits tumbled 3.0% MoM (notably worse than the 0.2% MoM drop).
Source: Bloomberg
This drop pushed Permits to the lowest since October…
Source: Bloomberg
Under the hood, both Single-fam permits (-1.6%) and Multi-fam permits (-7.7%) tumbled…
And for permits it was the opposite with single-family starts up 4.2% and Multi-fam starts up 4.0%
What are you going to do now Mr Powell?
