The latest data on housing starts and building permits are set for release at the bottom of the hour.
Economists estimate that housing starts dropped 3.8% in October at an annual rate of 1.16 million, according to Bloomberg. They forecast that building permits rose 3.8% at an annual rate of 1.147 million.
Here's a client preview from Nomura economists:
The broad improvement in housing starts this year suggests that improving household fundamentals, favorable demographics, and low mortgage interest rates are finally feeding through to the housing market. Multifamily starts increased at a very strong pace in most regions in September - indicative of household formations occurring increasingly in the rental space as people transition to renting before homeownership due to financial constraints - but we expect to see some payback in this metric in October as the multifamily series tends to be volatile …
We are constructive on housing activity in the medium term, largely based on: 1) pent-up demand from a depressed pace of household formation; and 2) improvement in the employment and income outlook for younger workers.
We'll have the latest once the data cross, refresh for updates.