Preview: Due September 18 - U.S. August Housing Starts and Permits - Starts to correct higher, permits to slip
We expect August housing starts to correct higher by 5.0% to 1300k after a 6.8% July decline that may have been exaggerated by bad weather. However we expect a 1.1% decline in permits to 1390k to extend a 3.3% decline seen in July.
July saw stronger new home sales despite the decline in starts and August’s non-farm payroll showed a rebound in construction aggregate hours worked after slippage in July.
We expect single starts to rise by 12.8% after a 14.1% July decline but multiple starts to fall by 12.1% after a 14.5% July increase. July’s decline in starts came largely in the South and West, with the latter possibly related to Hurricane Beryl.
We however expect single permits to resume a negative trend with a 1.2% decline after a marginal 0.2% increase in July. We expect multiple permits to fall by 1.1% after a 9.7% July decline that corrected a strong 16.7% increase in June.
