Following July's collapse in housing data (from permits to sales), August data for Housing Starts were supposed to bounce back but didn't (falling 0.8% MoM vs +1.7% exp) and Permits were expected to fall 0.8% but spiked 5.7% MoM (thanks to a big jump in multi-family units).
So it appears last month's ugly Housing Starts data was revised sharply higher on the back of a jump in multi-family units...
And Multi-family Permits jumped notably...
Finally for those who need simplicity - here is the performance of US Homebuilder stocks relative to the performance of US housing market data...
So, why bother looking at the housing data at all?