Rentor Nation Returns? Multi-Family Starts, Permits Soared In January

Take your pick…

Good news – Building Permits (forward-looking) soared a stunning 10.4% MoM in January (massively better than expectations of a 1.4% drop)

Bad news – Housing Starts (current) plunged 6.0% MoM (much worse than the 0.5% drop expected), first drop since August.

Source: Bloomberg

The surge in permits was driven by multi-family (rental) permits (which soared 28.0%) while single-family permits rose 3.8%…

On the Starts side, single-family dropped 6.0% after December’s surge while multi-family (rental) starts jumped 16.2%…

Finally, we note that Despite the euphoria in the housing market, we note that Total Housing Starts are actually down 2.3% YoY…

Source: Bloomberg

Led by a plunge in multi-family starts…

Source: Bloomberg