For the first time since Jan 09, Housing Starts dropped for the 3rd month in a row in May, drastically missing expectations (-5.5% vs +4.1% exp.) with both March and April revised notably lower. Building Permits also tumbled in May and massively missed expectations (-4.9% vs +1.7% exp.).

No one saw it coming...

Worst streak of performance for Housing Starts since Jan 2009...

Both Single- and Multi-Family Starts tumbled... This is the lowest level for overall housing starts since September 2016.