US housing permits and starts in June held below year-earlier levels while roofing flux prices remained unchanged for the month.
Permits for privately owned units, a sign of future construction, were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.397mn units in June, according to US Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) data. This is down by 4.4pc from the same time a year prior but marks a slight 0.2pc increase from revised figures in May.
Despite bearish sentiment, railed roofing flux prices remained steady in June as some market participants reported tight supply.
Housing starts saw less of a decline, slipping by 0.5pc to an annual rate of 1.321mn units in June from a year earlier. Starts in June jumped by 4.6pc from May, led by a near 31pc monthly rise in new buildings of five or more units. Single-family housing starts in June declined by 10pc to 883,000 units from June 2024 and retracted by 4.6pc from the prior month.
Homebuilder sentiment for single-family housing rose to 33 in July from 32 in June, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market index. Despite the monthly uptick, this is 8 points below July 2024 levels as macroeconomic uncertainty and elevated interest rates continued to weigh on the housing market.
"One in five contractors had a project interrupted or paused due to tariffs in June," according to Anirban Basu, chief economist for the Associated Builders and Contractor (ABC) trade association.
And the CME's FedWatch tool on Monday showed a 97.4pc probability the Federal Reserve will hold its target lending rate unchanged at 4.25-4.5pc at its policy meeting later this month.
Gulf coast roofing
Gulf coast roofing flux values held at $452.50/st in June from May, as midcontinent flux prices held at $435/st.
Reports of tight supplies likely stem from a narrow light-heavy crude spread incentivizing lighter crude diets alongside some refinery maintenance.
The spread between WTI and heavy Western Canadian Select at Hardisty, Alberta, averaged $11.24/bl over June, roughly 20pc below levels over the same month last year.
