Housing Starts Fall 5.9 pct. Building Permits Decline 1.6 pct. Rates Reverse Course
ByPosted To: MBS Commentary
Housing Starts and Building Permits fell in February. Housing Starts moved 5.9% lower to 575,000 annualized units, almost erasing the 6.6% gain seen in January. While this was a poor print for housing starts, the market was expecting worse…hence this is easier for traders to shrug off. Building Permits were 1.6% weaker in February at an annualized rate of 612,000. This follows a 4.7% decline in January but was essentially "on the screws" as forecasts called for an annualized pace of 610,000 permits. So again….crappy data, but not worse than anticipated. Looking a little deeper, most of the weakness in Housing Starts was a in mutli-family. SFRs barely budged while multi-unit fell from 109k units in Jan to 76k units in Feb. The same can be said about Building Permits…Single-family…(read more)