Two Ways to Look at Residential Construction Slowdown

The most common interval for scheduled economic data is "monthly."  That means that things like inflation, sentiment, job counts, unemployment, retail sales, and many other economic metrics are updated and released every month, even when nothing very interesting is happening. On that note, there are several regularly scheduled housing related reports.  This month's installment of New Residential Construction is today's example and, as you may have guessed, nothing very interesting is happening.   At a glance details: Housing Starts (1st phase of actual construction) 1.311 million annual pace vs  1.33m forecast, 1.353m previously Building Permits 1.416m vs 1.430m forecast, 1.425m previously Neither measurement stands out on a longer term chart.  B