Housing Starts, Permits Drop In September Amid Midwest Massacre

After August’s brief respite dead-cat-bounce, Housing starts resumed their collapse in September, slumping 5.3% (despite a downward revision to August’s spike). Permits notably disappointed, dropping for the 5th month of the last six…

Permits’ drop was driven by a 18.9% collapse in the Midwest (Northeast -9.8%, Midwest -18.9%, South +0.6%, West +11.1%).

This is the lowest multifamily permits since Feb 2017 (351K vs 340K)…

Single-family starts dropped 5.3%, with single units down -0.9% but multi-family starts crashing -12.9%.

The Northeast dominated housing starts with a massive 29% spike while the South and Midwest tumbled (Northeast 29.0%, Midwest -14.0%, South -13.7%, West 6.6%).

There is not growth – Housing Starts YoY have been hugging the flatline…

But hey, The Fed should keep hiking rates because “strong economy” and “inflation” and… well we give up.