February housing starts — What to know in markets Tuesday

Heidi Chung
·Reporter
Updated
0

The U.S. housing market might be heating up after a difficult 2018.

On Tuesday, investors will get a pulse on the U.S. housing market when the Commerce Department releases February’s housing data ahead of the market open.

The data comes on the heels of strong housing data reported for January. U.S. housing starts jumped 18.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.230 million units during the month.

Over the past couple of years, higher mortgage rates and labor costs were a drag on the U.S. housing market, but with a more dovish Federal Reserve, economists are hopeful that the strong momentum from January housing starts will spill over to February’s data as well.

Though economists don’t think February’s data will be quite as strong as January’s, they are anticipating that the U.S. economy added a seasonally adjusted 1.220 million units during the month.

“Moderating home price appreciation and firming mortgage applications and builder confidence should boost new home sales,” Wells Fargo Securities wrote in a note to clients on Friday. “As a primary transmission mechanism for monetary policy, the housing market will be closely watched this spring for clues as to the efficacy—and sustainability—of the Fed’s new stance.”

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Heidi Chung is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter: @heidi_chung.

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, and reddit.

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