After February's explosive surge in Housing Starts, expectations are for some giveback in March (in Permits too), but the reversion was considerably bigger than expected (and revisions did not help).

Housing Starts tumbled 8.7% MoM in March and the February 18.7% gain was revised down to +11.7% MoM.

Building Permits slid 1.6% MoM in March and February's modest 1.4% gain was revised to a 0.7% drop.

Biggest drop in starts in 8 months...

On A SAAR basis, the bounce is dead...

This is the biggest YoY drop in total housing starts (-9.9%) since Sept 2016...

Under the hood, Single-Family Starts tumbled over 10% YoY and 17% MoM (the biggest drop in four years) to the lowest since May 2017...