US housing starts beat, permits jump in November 2018

November 2018 US housing starts and building permits 18 December 2018

Housing starts 1.256m vs 1.225m exp. Prior 1.228m. Revised to 1.217m.
Permits 1.328m vs 1.259m exp. Prior 1.265

Good looking numbers and that might calm some housing nerves following yesterday’s big drop in the NAHB. Not much reaction in USD among everything else going on today. USDJPY 112.39. EURUSD 1.1374. Minor moves in both over this data.

Update: Looking into the strong permits number and it’s quite possible that the increase is hurricane related as permits are needed even to rebuild/fix damaged homes. I’m not sure if there’s exceptions or caveats to whether that’s included in the main numbers. As we can see below, permits jumped in the south, which was the main affected region.