September housing starts and building permits data
- Prior was 1180K (revised to 1183K)
- Down 4.7% on the month
- Building permits 1215K vs 1245K expected
- Prior building permits 1272K
- Permits down 4.5% m/m
That's a sizeable drop in starts and permits. The initial reaction in the market was some small US dollar. The drop was spread evenly among single and multi-family starts but regionally it was highly skewed:
- Northeast -9.2%
- Midwest -20.2%
- South -9.3%
- West +15.7%
Overall, the housing starts chart is starting to look a tiny bit worrisome but it's hard to believe it will stay low with prices so healthy.