US Housing Starts Soar Almost 17% In December; 13-Year High -- January 17, 2020

Housing data: link here. I was driving Sophia to school when the report was released so I did not see the announcement on television. 

According to one reader, Steve Liesman, CNBC) spent more time talking about the warm weather in December that accounted for the surge -- apparently didn't talk much about interest rates; optimism under Trump's policies; wealth effect of the market; near-record positive consumer sentiment; the fact that this is a 13-year high; soared almost 17%, etc., etc.

One would think that in thirteen years there would have been other "warm" Decembers especially with all the global warming we've had for the past three decades, but apparently it was the warm weather this year that was different somehow that drove the housing starts.

If in fact, it's all about warm weather, what's not to love about global warming with economic data like this? Highest level of housing starts since December, 2006. The percentage gain was the largest since October, 2016. November, 2019, data was revised upward.

Housing starts soared 40.8% on a year-on-year basis in December. Starts for the volatile multi-family housing segment vaulted 29.8% last month.

From the linked CNBC article:

The housing market is regaining momentum after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates three times last year, pushing down mortgage rates from last year’s multi-year highs. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate has dropped to an average of 3.65% from its peak of 4.94% in November 2018, according to data from mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac.

And folks forget it was President Trump's constant and consistent calling on the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. My hunch is that the Fed would not have cut rates to the extent it did had it not been for President Trump.

Consumer sentiment: 99.1

Consumer sentiment unexpectedly edged down to a reading of 99.1 in January, according to the University of Michigan’s preliminary monthly print for its survey of consumers.

Consensus economists had expected the headline print to hold at 99.3 for the month, matching December’s reading, according to Bloomberg data. The reading, however, still held relatively close to 2019’s recent high of 100.0 from May.