This morning's report on US housing starts came in at an annualized rate of 583K, which was higher than January's level of 477K and better than the consensus expectation of 450K. As shown below, even with last month's increase, the current level of starts is still severely depressed.
Depending on how you look at it, however, this month's report could be called the fifth best or the fifth worst report ever. On a year/year basis, housing starts decreased by 47.3%, which is the fifth lowest level in the indicator's history. On a month/month basis, however, housing starts increased by 22.2%, which is the fifth highest monthly increase in the indicator's history.
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