Housing Starts and Permits  (January 2021)

- Starts - Annual Rate    1,580,000. Previous was 1,669,000  

- Permits - Annual Rate    1,881,000. Previous was 1.704,000

A goal must be to keep starts above the 1.500,000 annual needed to accommodate expanded population and units lost. We were below that from Jan. 2007 to Dec. 2019, went above that for 2 months and then had the COVID crash. With 3 consecutive months of Starts greater than 1.5 million homebuilding has accomplished something not seen in 14 years.

SFR Starts were 1,269,000 which was +29.9% year/year.

Source:  Census  Details:  https://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/pdf/newresconst.pdf

 

Initial Jobless Claims (week ended 2/13/2021)

- Initial Claims seasonally adjusted  861,000. Previous was 848,000

- Initial Claims  unadjusted, totaled 862,351  a decrease of 5,702 (or -0.7 percent) from the previous week

- 4-Week Moving Average seasonally adjusted  833,250. Previous was  836,750

Total receiving regular state UI decreased by 153,878 

Total receiving Pandemic UI decreased by 258,059 

Total receiving Emergency Pandemic UI decreased by 718,036

Total receiving any UI decreased by 1,325,567

Source:  Labor Department   Details: https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

 

Import and Export Prices  (January 2021)

- Import Prices month/month     1.4%. Previous was +0.9%

- Import Prices year/year    -1.0%. Previous was -1.0%

- Export Prices month/month   +0.9%. Previous was -0.3%

- Export Prices year/year    +2.5%. Previous was +1.3%

Source: BLS  Details: https://www.bls.gov/mxp/