Just caught up on some housing starts data from earlier this year and the numbers are pretty interesting. Back in December, U.S. housing starts jumped 6.2% to hit an annual rate of 1.404 million, which beat what economists were calling for at 1.33 million. That's a solid beat, and you could see it across both multi-family and single-family construction ramping up.

What stood out to me was how much multi-family units led the charge. Those spiked 11.3% in December after barely moving 0.5% the month before. Single-family starts were up 4.1% too, so basically everything was firing on all cylinders. Building permits also crushed expectations, jumping 4.3% to 1.448 million annual rate when people were looking for 1.4 million.

But here's the thing - the housing market wasn't all smooth sailing after that. A report from the National Association of Home Builders showed homebuilder confidence actually dipped unexpectedly in February, with their market index dropping to 36. That's the weakest reading since last September, so there's definitely some hesitation creeping in.

One economist from Oxford Economics made a good point though - she said we might see gradual improvement in housing starts over the course of 2026, but it won't show up right away. January was apparently weaker than December partly because of winter weather, so the housing starts data momentum has been a bit choppy. Worth keeping an eye on how this plays out over the next few months.