Details of the housing starts & building permits report:

  • Prior housing starts 1135K (revised to 1165K)
  • Down 11.1% m/m (after a 22.1% rise the month before)
  • Building permits 1275K vs 1100K exp
  • Permits up 11.8%
  • Prior building permits 1143K (revised to 1140K)

The housing starts numbers are soft but that's mitigated somewhat by the upward revisions. The surprise number is building permits, which is very good.

USD/JPY fell on the headlines but it may turn around quickly as the permits number sinks in.

Building permits still have a long way to go but that's a big jump

One mitigating factor for housing starts is that virtually all the growth was in multi-family starts, which rose to the highest level since January 1990 at 592K. So there is probably some kind of skew here, not necessarily a sign of a lasting pickup in construction.