Housing starts leaped 22.7% in November to reach a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.09 million, with surges for single-family homes and apartments, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected overall housing starts in November to hit a rate of 963,000.
www.marketwatch.com/story/...-hits-fastest-pace-since-2008-2013-12-18
Der Markt "weiß" offenbar noch nicht so recht, ob er dies als positive Konjunkturmeldung verbuchen soll (= Aktienanstiege) oder als Vorwarnung für baldiges bzw. heutiges Tapering (= Aktienabverkäufe).
ZH schreibt zudem, dass die Housing-Zahlen durch saisonale Bereinigungen hedonistisch nach oben verzerrt worden sind:
www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-18/...easonal-adjustments-rental-units
Today's key economic data point, aside from the FOMC announcement of course, was the monthly Housing Starts and Permits report. And with November starts printing at 1091K, a massive 202K unit surge compared to the revised 889K in October, this was the highest monthly print since early 2008 and biggest monthly jump since... January 1990! Supposedly builders just can't get enough. Well, maybe. Until one again looks below the headlines, where one finds that a substantial portion of the jump is once again due to the builders' bet that rental housing demand will continue growing, as multi-family unit starts soared from 281K to 354K - just shy of the highest print since 2008 as well.....
However, there was more: because if one assumes a major surge in seasonally adjusted data, there should be a matched surge in NSA data too. There wasn't, and in fact the NSA print rose by a very modest 5.5K to 82.8K actual houses started in November. Additionally, the single-family print barely rose from 49.2 to just 51.9, well below the highs seen in the summer of 2013, when unadjusted single-family starts were higher than the November print from March until August! In fact, at 51.9K, single unit homes are back to mid-2011 levels. Thank you seasonal adjustments.
So sieht es in den Augen argloser Betrachter (z. B. Pensonsfondsmanager) aus:
