US Building Permits Collapse In November, Multi-Family Plans Plunge

After the dismal homebuilder sentiment data earlier in the week, it is no surprise that analysts expected a drop in both housing starts and building permits for November (the latest data) and they were right. While Housing Starts fell 0.5% MoM (better than the 1.8% drop expected) – as incentives dominated inventory liquidation, forward-looking building permits collapsed 11.2% MoM (vs -2.1% exp). That is the biggest MoM drop since the peak of the COVID lockdowns…