US Housing Starts Surged To 16 Year High In Feb

After January’s surprise drop in Housing Starts MoM, analysts expected February to see a rebound and vice verse, following Jan’s rise, February was expected to see Permits drop MoM, and that is what we saw with Starts surging 6.8% MoM (better than the +3.8% exp) and Permits dropped 1.9% MoM (better than the -2.4% expected).

Source: Bloomberg

Single-family permits were down -0.5% but multi-family permits tumbled 4.5% MoM…

The  surge in Starts was driven by a 5.7% MoM spike in Single-family (from 1.150MM to 1.215MM). Multi-family starts rose 0.8% from 497K to 501K

This pushed Housing Starts to their highest SAAR since June 2006 as Permits pulls back from similar highs…

Source: Bloomberg

This surge in starts comes as homebuilder sentiment for sales six-months ahead tumbles and mortgage rates soar.