© Dukascopy Bank SA
- Morgan Stanley
As reported by the US Census Bureau, there were 1.164 million constructions of residential buildings started in the US in May. The data beat expectations of 1.15 million, while still being below the April's reading of 1.172 million. During the previous month there was a sharp increase in the construction, but a lot of homes on the market became less affordable, amid a rather sharp increase in prices for those homes. Mortgage rates, however, are at low levels, somewhat boosting demand for apartment and house acquisitions, but, nonetheless, for some prices remain too high. Single-family houses have a higher impact than apartments, as they provide a larger economic boost and they rose 0.3% up to 764,000, while apartments showed only 396,000 residences, thus, barely changed compared to the previous month's data.
Furthermore, only 1.138 million building permits for construction were issued in the US last month, with the data slightly failing to meat expectations of 1.15 million. Among permits the single-family ones provided concerns, as they showed the largest monthly slowdown during the past 15 months. The permits for houses dropped 2% down to 726,000 units, while the apartment permits were at 381,000 units. This weaker data is unlikely to have a serious effect on the GDP second estimate, as it is forecasted to show signs of improvement, being driven by higher demand in household.