April 16, 2021

Housing Starts and Permits  (March  2021)

- Starts - Annual Rate    1,739,000. Previous was 1.457,000

- Permits - Annual Rate    1,766,000. Previous was 1.720,000

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. Home prices are increasing at an unhealthy rate due to lack of supply. In order to make up for the shortfall of Housing Starts over the past 14 years we need Starts at a level of 2,200,000 for 10 years. 

SFR Starts were 1,238,000 which was +40.7% year/year.

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

 

Consumer Sentiment  (April 2021)

- index  86.5. Previous was 84.9

This is a survey index from University of Michigan's Consumer Survey Center.  Details: http://www.sca.isr.umich.edu/