Housing Starts, Permits Plunge In February As Rental Units Crash

Amid two months of dismal housing sales data, and after spiking in January, starts and permits just plunged in February, driven by a collapse in multi-family unit data.

The 7.0% plunge in housing starts (-2.7% exp) is tied with the biggest drop since March 2017 and the 5.7% tumble in permits (-4.1% exp) is the biggest since February 2017...

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Year-over-year, the picture is just as bad...

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The drop was led by a collapse in multifamily units - Multifamily Starts down 28% MoM on an annualized basis

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And Multifamily Permits down 14.6% MoM on an annualized basis...

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And this dismal data extends the drop in US housing data as the effects of the Hurricanes and Storms fades fast...

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Probably a good time to hike rates 4 or 5 more times this year!