Tag Archives: housing permits

 – by New Deal democrat The Bonddad Blog There was a big decline in housing starts last month, and a smaller but significant decline in permits. Whether that signifies a change in trend or just noise is the issue. I lean towards the latter. To wit, in reaction to both January and Februarys’ housing construction report I wrote, “To signify a likely recession, units under construction would have to decline at least -10%, and needless to say,...

A Fed nightmare? Housing permits and starts confirm improvement from bottom, multi-unit construction sets new record high  – by New Deal democrat Housing construction is perhaps the single most important method by which the Fed seeks to translate its interest rate policy into effects on the economy.  To be blunt, the Fed’s sledgehammer attempt via one of the most aggressive rate hike campaigns in its history appears to be on the verge of...

Housing permits jump; the last hurrah before mortgage rates bite? This morning’s report on January housing permits and starts highlighted the unique divergence between the two. As I have often pointed out, permits are the more leading and less noisy of the two reports, so I usually highlight them, especially single family permits. But in the past year there has been a marked divergence in trend between the two data sets, as permits soared then...

July housing permits and starts: yellow flag for economy in 2022 Last month I noted that, from here on, the comparisons with 2020 in housing would become much more challenging. And so they have. While permits (gold in the graph below) did increase this month, their declining trend remains intact. Starts (blue), and more importantly, single-family permits (red, right scale) – the least volatile measure of all – both decreased again, as they...