Housing starts, meanwhile, plummeted 15.4% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.177 million units (Briefing.com consensus: 1.440 million), with single-unit starts down 1.9%.
Building permits were down 0.7% month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.413 million (Briefing.com consensus: 1.410 million), with single-unit permits up 0.6%.
The key takeaway from the report is that the weakness in starts was concentrated on the multi-unit side, as starts there were down 40.2% month-over-month, yet it would be remiss not to mention that single-unit starts in the South—the largest homebuilding region—were down 5.2% month-over-month.