Briefing.com: Housing Starts

Updated: 16-Jun-22 09:28 ET

May Housing Starts

Updated: 16-Jun-22 09:28 ET

Highlights

Housing starts declined 14.4% month-over-month in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.549 million units (Briefing.com consensus 1.730 million).
Building permits -- a leading indicator -- declined 7.0% month-over-month to 1.695 million (Briefing.com consensus 1.800 million).

Key Factors

The change in single-unit starts by region: Northeast (+5.5%); Midwest (-5.9%); South (-10.0%); and West (-11.8%).
The change in single-unit permits by region: Northeast (-1.6%), Midwest (-2.3%); South (-7.3%); and West (-3.3%).
Multi-unit starts decreased 23.7% month-over-month while multi-unit permits decreased 9.4% month-over-month.
The number of units under construction at the end of the period increased 0.4% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.665 million. That left the Q2 average 4.7% above the Q1 average, so it will be accounted for as a positive input in Q2 GDP forecasts.

Big Picture

The key takeaway from the report was the broad-based softness in single-family starts and permits. To that end, starts declined month-over-month in three of the four geographic regions while permits declined in all regions with the largest region -- the South -- seeing the largest decline in permits.