by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
Mish Talk
Housing starts took a huge dive in March. April rates to be much worse.
Economists at Econoday expected housing starts would fall to 1.35 million on a seasonally-adjusted annualized rate (SAAR). That’s a decline of 15.6% from the February report of 1.599 million SAAR.
Instead, starts fell to 1.216 million SAAR, a decline of 22.3% according to the March New Residential Construction Report.
Building Permits
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,353,000.