Slow & Steady, A Housing Starts Affair

The Census Bureau report released today shows that housing starts missed their estimates for last month, coming in at 1,287,000.  The previous report had a stronger-than-trend multifamily starts print. Typically, a strong print will be followed by a lower-than-trend print in the next month and this is what we see in the current report. Even though the headline numbers show a miss, the housing starts and permits story has stayed the same this entire cycle; the play is called Slow & Steady, A Housing Starts Affair. 

From Census:
https://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/pdf/newresconst.pdf

From Census: 
https://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/pdf/newresconst.pdf

Building Permits:

Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual
rate of 1,352,000. This is 1.8 percent (±1.3 percent) below the revised March rate of 1,377,000, but is 7.7 percent (±0.9 percent) above the April 2017 rate of 1,255,000. Single-family authorizations in April were at a rate of 859,000; this is 0.9 percent (±1.4 percent)* above the revised March figure of 851,000…