US Housing Starts & Building Permits Plunge In September (Down -0.7% YoY)

September! Or Get Down!

Housing starts dropped -0.7% YoY in September.

After surprising top the upside in August, Housing Starts and Building Permits disappointed in September, declining more than expected (-0.5% MoM and -2.9% MoM respectively)…

Source: Bloomberg

Under the hood, multi-family permits plunged 10.8% MoM (and multi-family starts dropped for the second straight month). Single-family starts rose 2.7% MoM and permiots inchjed higher by 0.3% MoM…

Source: Bloomberg

Rate-cut expectations appear to have taken the excitement out of the building market…

Source: Bloomberg

Housing Completions also dropped (but the BLS thinks construction jobs continue to rise non-stop)…

Source: Bloomberg

So, The Fed cuts short-term rates… mortgage-rates rise… and builders slow their building plans… that’s not how it’s supposed to work!

Cottage Cheese? Mortgage Applications Down 17% Since Last Week, Purchase Applications Down -60% Under Biden/Harris (Housing Prices Up 34.2% Under Biden/Harris While Mortgage Rates Up 138.6%)

I would like to see Kamala Harris explain why mortgage purchase applications are down -60% under Biden/Harris Presidency. Other than a word salad answer. Or Cottage Cheese.

Mortgage applications decreased 17.0 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Applications Survey for the week ending October 11, 2024.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 17.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 17 percent compared with the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 7 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 7 percent compared with the previous week and was 7 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

The Refinance Index decreased 26 percent from the previous week and was 111 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

Housing prices are up 34.2% under Biden/Harris while mortgage rates are up 138.6%.

Thunderstruck! US Unemployment Rate Is 8.7%, More Than Double BLS Estimate Of 4.1% (Mortgage Rates Rising With Declining BLS Estimates)

Thunderstruck! Interest rates should be thunderstruck when realization dawns that the recend BLS jobs reporr was grossly mismeasured.

National unemployment was 8.7% in this month’s Rasmussen Reports Real Unemployment and significantly more than double the 4.1% rate officially reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today. 

Mortgage rates are rising again with Friday’s surprising jobs report. But as it just a false election report. If Rasmussen is correct, mortgage rates should FALL again.

US Jobs Surge! BIG Fed Policy Error Or Gov’t Election Manipiulation? (785,000 Gov’t Workers Added In September)

It turns out that Powell’s “emergency” 50bps rate cut was – drumroll – another major policy mistake by the Fed. Or it is Presidential election interference by The Biden/Harris Administration giving Cacklin’ Kamala as talking point?

Moments ago, the BLS reported that at a time when prevailing consensus was for jobs to continue their recent downward slide sparked by the near-record annual jobs revision and several months of downbeat jobs reports, in September the US unexpectedly added a whopping 254K jobs, the biggest monthly increase since March…

… and above the highest estimate (which as noted last night was from Jefferies at 220K). In fact, the number was a 4-sigma beat to the median estimate!

There’s more: unlike previous months where we saw repeat downward job revisions, the BLS said that both prior months were revised up, to wit: the change in total nonfarm payroll employment for July was revised up by 55,000, from +89,000 to +144,000, and the change for August was revised up by 17,000, from +142,000 to +159,000. With these revisions, employment in July and August combined is 72,000 higher than previously reported.

Some context: as UBS notes, the moving six-month average on nonfarm payrolls is 167k. The estimate is that 150k is about consistent with a return of the economy to trend growth. Which means that inflation is about to come back with a vengeance, just as the Fed launches its easing cycle.

Remarkably, while payrolls jumped by the most in half a year, the number of employed people also surged, rising by a whopping 430K, also the biggest one-month jump since March.

It wasn’t just the payrolls, however, which came in far stronger than estimates: the unemployment rate also came in stronger than expected, and thanks to the jump in employed workers coupled with the decline in unemployed workers (from 7.115MM to 6.834MM), it dropped from 4.2% to 4.1% (and down from 4.3% two months ago which spared the entire recession panic).

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for adult men (3.7 percent) decreased in September. The jobless rates for adult women (3.6 percent), teenagers (14.3 percent), Whites (3.6 percent), Blacks (5.7 percent), Asians (4.1 percent), and Hispanics (5.1 percent) showed little or no change over the month.

And here is the rub, because in a vacuum the super strong jobs numbers would have been fantastic, the only issue is that the September blowout comes as the Fed launches an easing cycle and as wages are once again rising as we have warned for the past 3 months. Indeed, in September, the average hourly earnings rose 0.4% sequentially, beating the estimate of 0.3%, while on an annual basis, wage growth was 4.0%, up from an upward revised 3.9% and beating the 3.8% estimate.

One note here: the average workweek for all employees edged down by 0.1 hour to 34.2 hours in September, which means the hourly earnings increase is not “pure” but rather a function of denominator adjustments. In manufacturing, the average workweek was unchanged at 40.0 hours, and overtime edged down by 0.1 hour to 2.9 hours. The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls remained at 33.7 hours.

What sector had the biggest growth? UNPRODUCTIVE government workers! A record 785,000 government workers were added in September, pushing total govt workers also to a new record high.

The Biden/Harris Administration has given away billions of dollars to foreign nations (like Ukraine) and illegal immigrants so far this year,

– $24,400,000,000 to Ukraine.

– $11,300,000,000 to Israel.

– $1,950,000,000 to Ethiopia.

– $1,600,000,000 to Jordan.

– $1,400,000,000 to Egypt.

– $1,100,000,000 to Afghanistan.

– $1,100,000,000 to Somalia.

– $1,000,000,000 to Yemen.

– $987,000,000 to Congo.

– $896,000,000 to Syria.

– $9,000 per illegal immigrant that has entered the U.S.

And claim that FEMA has no money left for Hurricane Helene victims who have received only $750 per person. So I have plenty of reasons to have no trust or confidence in the Biden/Harris Mal-administration.

Buying Conditions Under Harris Far Worse Than Under Trump (Great Under Trump, Dismal Under Harris)

The University of Michigan consumer survery is out and the results are startling.

Under Biden/Harris, buying conditions are far worse than under Trump/Pence.

In fact, buying conditions were extremely favorable (above 100) under Trump and dismal under Harris. Particularly for housing (where higher than normal mortgage rates and high housing prices made the “American Dream” the American Scream.

Biden/Harrisnomics At Work! US Existing Home Sales Fall To Near 14-Year Lows In August (Pending Home Sales AT All-time Low!)

More evidence of how destructive Biden/Harris economic policies have been.

The NAR data show existing home sales down 2.5 percent in August to a 3.86 million unit seasonally adjusted annual rate after a small upward revision to 3.96 million units in July.

US existing home sales fell in August to near 14-year lows. Pink box.

Meanwhile, pending home sales (red line) ARE at an all-time low.

Election Interference? Fed Slashes Interest Rates By Biggest Amount In 16 YEARS (50bps) Two Months Prior To Presidential Election (Dots Plot Suggests More Rates To Come)

If this isn’t election interference, I don’t know what is.

The Fed today slashed interest rates by the biggest amount in 16 YEARS, a whopping 50 basis points from 5.50% to 5.00%. With the economy roaring along (thanks to Covid-related massive Federal spending), there was no good reason to slash rates. Other than to get Kamala (Hyena) Harris across the finish line.

The Fed’s bloated balance sheet remains bloast at 7.115 TRILLION.

The dots plot reveals more rate cuts to come. Or as the flea sang, Food Around The Corner.

Perhaps the voting members of FOMC realize how bad Harris/Walz’s economic policies are??

Highway To Hell! US Pending Home Sales Index Falls Below Pandemic Low (Now At Worst Ever Level)

Biden/Harrisnomics is the US ecoonomy’s highway to hell.

US pending home sales just fell to below pandemic lows and is officially the worst in history.

Way to go Biden/Harris. The economy distorters and killers. Welcome to NEW Venezuela!

Downtown? Office Values In US Metro Areas Have Crashed 52% From Highs (Zombie Towers In Large Cities Creating Drag)

Downtown? I know a place where the crime and congestion isn’t so bad, the suburbs.

Commercial real estate market challenges are more severe for older office towers in downtown metro areas than those outside city centers. The mismatch between funding needs and available credit in a high-interest-rate environment has also intensified the strain on building owners, as elevated tower vacancy rates persist across many markets due to the ongoing trend of remote work becoming the norm. 

Aging business districts from Los Angeles to Chicago to Boston of zombie towers with high vacancy rates that have no use in today’s economy. 

Big landlords, including Brookfield, Blackstone, and Starwood Capital Group, have walked away from older downtown towers in recent quarters.

The latest data from MSCI shows office values in metro areas have crashed 52% from their highs. Some of the worst declines have occurred in San Francisco, Manhattan, Washington, and Boston.

Source: Bloomberg

Between 2019 and 2023, about $557 billion of value evaporated from US offices due to a multi-year slide in demand, with older towers quickly falling out of favor with companies, according to an estimate by economists at Columbia and New York universities. CBRE Group noted that only 2% of towers in the US are considered top-tier, with rents 84% higher than the rest of the market. 

Data from brokerage Savills shows office rents in business districts have grown slower than rents for similar buildings outside metro areas. 

Source: Bloomberg

The move to new towers highlights how, for decades, the bubbles in legacy downtown districts, fueling economies, have ended for now, and older towers will have to be torn down.

To be very frank. It’s a crisis. Democrats running the crime-ridden metro area are delusional and blinded by their woke religion as the city’s population recently crashed to a 100-year low, and violent crime remains a major issue.

We’ve had conversations with multiple folks at wealth management and investment banking firm Stifel Financial about the latest shift of operations outside the dying business district to a new tower in a much safer and newer district. At first, Stifel contemplated leaving the city for the suburbs because far-left Democrats in City Hall could not enforce law and order.

CRE foreclosures are on the rise.

Don’t forget about Soros-funded district attorneys not enforcing the law in large cities. Expect more of the same if Harris/Walz win the election.

Big Bubbles! US Home Prices Up 6.47% YoY, Hit All-time High As Fed Keeps Foot On Monetary Gas Pedal

Big bubbles! US home pricest hit an all-time high as The Fed keeps its foot on the monetary gas pedal following the Covid economic shutdown in 2020.

Home prices in America’s 20 largest cities rose for the 16th straight month in June (according to the latest data from S&P CoreLogic – Case Shiller – data today), up 0.42% MoM (hotter than expected and accelerating from May). On a YoY basis, prices rose 6.47%, but notably that is the third straight monthly slowdown in the pace of price appreciation…

Source: Bloomberg

Overall, US home prices reached a new record high in June (as median new home prices continued to tread water)…

Source: Bloomberg

Home prices continue to track Fed Reserves closely, but a turning point may come soon…

Source: Bloomberg

Given the smoothing and heavy lag in the Case-Shiller data, it’s hard to find a causal relationship between prices and mortgage rates…

Source: Bloomberg

But, with prices reaccelerating and mortgage rates already back below 7.00% – in anticipation of The Fed – WTF does Powell think is going to happen when he actually starts cutting with prices at these record highs.

The Freddie Mac HP index shows the variation in home price growth. New Jersey coastal towns of Atlantic City and Ocean City grew at 10% YoY while Lake Charles LA declined by -2% YoY.