Housing starts plunge 14% to 16-year low

[swag]

Source: MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Construction on new homes fell 14% in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.01 million, the slowest building pace in more than 16 years, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

The gruesome figures show builders are cutting back on production at a furious pace to try to work off a large backload of unsold homes. The bad news is that housing is still contracting; the good news is that the sooner builders stop adding supply to overbuilt markets, the sooner the housing market can recover.

Housing starts for single-family homes in the West fell 16% to the lowest level since the data were first collected in 1959.

National housing starts were lower than the 1.12 million pace expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. The pace of housing starts for October and November were also revised lower.

Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/housing-starts-plunge-14-16-year/story.aspx?guid=%7B57EE3235%2D9126%2D4DDA%2DA284%2D556E1E188CDE%7D

[pattmarty]

1. To quote a famous nitwit; "here we go again"!!!!!!

[demnan]

2. The value of my condo has gone so low

I'll have to pay someone to take it!

[YOY]

3. When I can actually afford to buy a home the "housing market will recover"

Until then all their "trust in the ecnonomy" bs can go fork itself...

[Tansy_Gold]

4. This is going to be a boon to the "reverse mortgage" vampires

My parents (Dad almost 82, Mom just turned 79) have been trying to sell their condo for two years. As my dad's health deteriorates and my mother has more difficulty caring for him, assisted living is becoming more and more of a certainty for the near future. But they can't move unless/until they can sell the condo. With the housing market what it is, they aren't going to be able to sell any time soon.

They're already talking about "those Pat Boone commercials." Having seen one family member get royally screwed and end up just short of living on the streets as a result of a reverse mortgage scam, I'm seriously worried about my folks, because they're in Chicago and I'm here in Arizona, 2000 miles away. Fortunately, my siblings who are closer seem to have wise heads, but I still worry.

And I know my parents aren't the only ones. As housing values drop, as jobs dry up, as more and more people see their home values plunge below their mortgage balance, and as the spiral intensifies, the vultures will come in to pick up the pieces.

Where I used to live in Indiana, there was a particularly wealthy family that was almost universally despised. Even 40 years and more after the Great Depression, their name was still often spoken with an implied spit of disgust. I remember my mother-in-law pointing out when one member of that family got married, it should be noted that she had to go outside the local community to find anyone willing to marry into the family "just for the money." No one local who had any ethics would have anything to do with "them." Why were they so despised? Because they had made their money during the Depression by buying up farm mortgages and then foreclosing. Then they let the farm families stay on the land and work it as tenants, until the economy stabilized and property values went up. Then this particular family sold the land and kicked the tenants out into the road. Even in that community where 95% of the voting population was registered Republican and "property rights" were considered even more sacred (though not by much) than gun rights, that kind of greed was frowned on. And the disapproval and disgust extended past the original perpetrators to their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

This whole housing mess has been just one of several schemes designed by the fascist/feudal elite to such wealth, energy, and hope from the working classes and tuck it firmly in the pockets of the rich. Do NOT blame the victims.

Tansy Gold

[LeftHander]

5. Drunken frat boy drives nation into ditch......

Hmmm not since the last Bush admin....

Those Bush's sure have a way of screwing up the country....

[NMDemDist2]

6. ding ding ding!! n/t