Amid two months of dismal housing sales data, and after spiking in January, starts and permits just plunged in February, driven by a collapse in multi-family unit data.

The 7.0% plunge in housing starts (-2.7% exp) is tied with the biggest drop since March 2017 and the 5.7% tumble in permits (-4.1% exp) is the biggest since February 2017…

Year-over-year, the picture is just as bad…

The drop was led by a collapse in multifamily units – Multifamily Starts down 28% MoM on an annualized basis

And Multifamily Permits down 14.6% MoM on an annualized basis…

And this dismal data extends the drop in US housing data as the effects of the Hurricanes and Storms fades fast…

Probably a good time to hike rates 4 or 5 more times this year!