Housing starts are declining: Expect less sales of appliances and furniture

Housing starts is a term for the start of construction of new residential housing units. Housing starts are important because you will have to purchase a lot of additional goods like appliances and furniture to go in that new house. Therefore, housing starts are a closely watched economic indicator.
Housing starts dropped 0.8% in March primarily driven by a decrease in multi-family housing construction that was not fully offset by an increase in single family home construction. March housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.42 million versus 1.432 million in February. Building permits, which would precede building construction, dropped in March as well versus February.
Looking ahead, we will see continued declines in apartment construction because lending conditions are tightening.
As we said, housing starts are important because they lead to further spending on things like appliances and furniture. Slowly housing starts will result in slower sales of consumer discretionary items.
Works Cited:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/housingstarts.asp