Housing Stats, Russia, & a Rate Hike

Week in Review: Sept. 19-23

Zack here, filling in for Anirban. A relatively slow week for economic data releases gave us another rate hike, more evidence that the housing market is icy cold, and bad news out of Russia.

Monday

NAHB Housing Market Index

This index—a measure of the strength of the single-family housing market—fell for the ninth straight month in September. The subindices, which measure sales at present, sales over the next six months, and the traffic of prospective buyers, all declined for the month.

Tuesday

Building Permits & Housing Starts

Housing authorizations fell 10% in August and are down 14.4% since August 2021. Housing starts, on the other hand, increased 12.2% on a monthly basis but declined 0.1% year over year.

Permitting decreased the most for multifamily buildings, down 18.5% for buildings with five or more units, though the number of 5+ unit buildings started in August was up 28.6% from July.

Despite the housing market’s utter lack of momentum, the number of homes under construction increased in August, up 1.6% from July and 20.5% from August 2021, and remains at the highest level since at least 1970 (when the Census Bureau began tracking it).

Wednesday

Interest Rate Decision