Housing the "Multi-tudes"

Housing Starts and Building Permits data were very strong. However, much of the month-over-month increase was due to multi-family rental construction (up 25.1% MoM) we do not mean to downplay the strong housing data, but we would like to point out that rental property construction does not resultin the same kind of consumer spending as single-family primary residence home building. A good number of the single-family homes being built (up 11.0% MoM) are for rental/investment purposes. Today's data is very good news in that jobs are created from construction of any kind. We would just like to point out that home construction is unlikley to have the same follow-on effect as it had in the past. Even if most of the construction was for primary residences, the pace of constructions remains below levels seen during prior recessions, never mind recoveries. The lonng journey homes remains in the early stages.

Tom Byrne tom@bond-squad.com. www.bond-squad.com www.mksense.blogspot.com 347-927-7823 Twitter: @Bond_Squad