Tornado Alley (PROG)

[sortagreen]

Housing starts fell 9.8% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.256 million units, the Commerce Department announced on Wednesday. The data was far worse than expected, as economists looked for only a slight decrease of -0.8% to 1.360 million units. April saw a revised increase of 2.7% to 1.392 million units.

This was the lowest reading since May 2020, during the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak.

For the year, housing construction is down 4.6% from the May 2024 rate of 1.316 million

The report said that building permits for future homebuilding fell -2.0% to a rate of 1.393 million last month, which was lower than the consensus expectation for 1.430 million permits. April’s print was revised to -4.0% and 1.422 million units. For the year, building permit issuances were 1.0% below the May 2024 rate of 1,407,000.

https://www.kitco.com/news/article/2025-06-18/spot-gold-3387oz-after-us-housing-starts-fall-98-may

"The data was far worse than expected"

Yeah... like 12 times the expected decline.