Housing starts unexpectedly moved up in September. Starts jumped 10.5% in August and continued on that trend by moving from 598,000 to 610,000 in September. This is above the expected forecast and is also up 4.1% as compared to last year's numbers. The main component of this rise was a 4.4% gain in single-family starts. The multifamily component dropped, however.
On the other hand, permits dropped 5.6% with the main cause being attributed to the multifamily component. Single-family permits actually increased slightly. The annualized rate of permits is down 10.9% as compared to a year ago.
The region which had the most starts was the South. The Northeast also had a gain, but somewhat smaller than the South. The Midwest dropped from a month ago as did the West.
Speculations exist that this unexpected strengthening may be due to the market reaching the bottom after the tax credit expired. Of course, some seasonality due to anticipated weather issues as we move into the colder months must also be factored into the analysis.
Comments(0)