US ECON: Starts and Permits Fall Hard in October

The Fed has already turned a deaf ear to the cacophony of weak housing data but the October numbers are distinctly negative. Housing starts fell by 14.6% and building permits dropped by 6.3%. The formation of the housing stock has slowed dramatically but household operations and personal consumption expenditures have not. Mortgage resets have not been as unwieldy as predicted since, despite 425 bps of higher monetary policy, fixed rates have been very attractive.