No Bottom in Sight for US Housing

It's been a while since I posted on US housing starts. The graph above tells the story. The details for May were as follows;

Permits were at 969,000, -1.3% percent below April and -36.3% below May 2007.

Starts were at 975,000, -3.3% below April and -32.1% below the May 2007.

Completions were at 1,132,000, 11.6% above April and -26.9% May 2007.

Remember that completions follow starts by about 6 months. The decline in permits in May suggests further drops in starts next month. No sign of the bottom callers yesterday.