Housing Starts, Permits Crash In November (Despite Soaring Homebuilder Confidence)

Just yesterday homebuilders raged hard about how awesome everything was - sending their optimism index to its highest since the previous peak in 2005. It seems they are all talk and no action as November's data for housing starts and permits collapsed(following the trajectory of mortgage apps).

Housing Starts crashed 18.7% MoM - near the biggest monthly plunge since the crisis peak in 2005.

Driven by a 43.9% collapse in Multi-family Starts MoM: look at the volatility in that time series: is that what a "stable" housing market looks like?

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