Despite ugly consumer confidence and soaring mortgage rates, analysts expected a small rebound in housing starts and building permits in May (after April’s disappointing misses). They were wrong… again… as both Starts and Permits plunged MoM (-5.5% MoM and -3.8% MoM respectively)…
Source: Bloomberg
That was the third monthly drop in permits (more forward looking) in a row. Worse still, April Housing Starts were revised lower (from +5.7% to +4.1%), making this miss even worse.
This dragged the SAARs for starts and permits to their lowest since the trough of COVID…
Source: Bloomberg
With Multifamily starts falling back near COVID lockdown lows…
-
Single-Family 982K SAAR, down 4.8% from 1,031K and the first sub-million print since October 2023
-
Multi-Family 278K, down 13.7% from 322K and the lowest since March’s 245K (which was the lowest print since covid crash)
Source: Bloomberg
And multi-family permits cratering to their lowest since Oct 2018…
-
Single-Family permits 949K SAAR, down 2.9% from 977K
-
Multi-Family permits 382K SAAR, down 6.1% from 407K
And with rate-cut expectations holding near their lows, there is no sign of recovery in home-building yet…
Source: Bloomberg
It seems reality is starting to set in for homebuilders…
Source: Bloomberg
Finally, where the f**k is the Biden administration finding their construction employment data? As housing starts plummet, jobs seem to keep growing to record highs…
Source: Bloomberg
Will any rate-cut actually move the dial here?
Tyler Durden
Thu, 06/20/2024 – 08:43
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Tyler Durden
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://zerohedge.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.