It’s not a crash, but it sort of smells like one. Housing starts and newly issued residential building permits dropped sharply in January, the Census Bureau reported this morning. The declines, which came in well below expectations, follow a pattern of late: disappointing economic news for the US. But once again there’s also the routine of analysts telling us that the unusually harsh winter weather is temporarily weighing on the data and so better numbers are just around the corner. Perhaps, but for the moment there’s a new dose of ugly numbers to review.
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The sharp drop in confidence among home builders this month adds another disappointing number to the growing list of troubling economic updates. “Unusually severe weather conditions across much of the nation along with continued concerns over the cost and availability of labor and lots caused builder confidence in the market for newly-built, single-family homes to post a 10-point drop to 46 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index,” NAHB reported yesterday.
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