If it wasn't clear to everyone that the "old normal" American Dream of buying and owning a house is now dead and buried, then today's just announced housing starts and permits data put the last nail in that particular coffin, because as we noted earlier while single-family housing starts dropped once again, this time to a level last seen in October, the real story was in housing permits. But not single-family permits: multi-family ones, aka rental buildings, just had the biggest monthly surge since June 2008, jumping 26% in one month, and a whopping 54% from a year ago!