Feb housing starts -8.7% to 1.162m SAAR,....>

US DATA: Feb housing starts -8.7% to 1.162m SAAR, below the 1.205m rate 

expected by an MNI survey and 1.210m expected by Bloomberg consensus. 

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- Jan starts rev up to 1.273m from 1.230m, Dec starts rev up to 1.140m 

from 1.037m. 

- Starts by region were generally down. Starts in the South -6.8%, the 

Midwest +26.8%, the West -18.9%, and -29.5% in the Northeast. 1-family 

starts -17.0%, while multi-family starts +17.8%. 

- Building permits -1.6% to 1.296m SAAR vs 1.300m expected by an MNI 

survey and 1.305m SAAR expected by the Bloomberg consensus. 1-family 

flat, while multi-family -4.2%. 

- Housing completions +4.5% to 1.303m SAAR.