BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research – A US Economics Report – Wednesday, 17 October 2012
September starts and permits surprise sharply higher
Housing starts rose 15% in September to 872,000 units, more than 100,000 units above the consensus forecasts of 770,000 (and our own 775,000 expectation). Building permits climbed sharply as well, up 11.6% from August to 894,000 permits; we and consensus were looking for just over a 1% rise to 810K. These data suggest strong momentum in the housing market recovery and upside risks to our GDP growth forecasts for Q3 and Q4. Some details:
Read the full report here.