U.S. Homebuilder Confidence Declines to 16-Year Low

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

June 18 (Bloomberg) -- Confidence among U.S. homebuilders fell this month to the lowest since February 1991 as interest rates climbed and delinquencies surged.

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Homebuilders including Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. are losing money as they cut prices to stem a slide in sales amid stricter standards for getting mortgages. Builders have scaled back projects to work off bloated inventories, a sign housing construction will weigh on growth for the rest of the year, economists say.

``There will be continuing declines in home building through the second half'' of this year, said Robert Mellman, an economist at JPMorgan Chase Corp. in New York. ``If rates hadn't gone up, we would have expected it would have stabilized. We've put off the stabilization in housing until early next year.''

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Housing Starts

Building permits, which signal intentions of starting projects, fell in April to the lowest since June 1997. The Commerce Department may say tomorrow that housing starts fell last month to an annual rate of 1.473 million, from 1.528 million in April, according to the median forecast.


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aOKq.kVLKHB4&refer=us

[ixion]

1. hmmmm, gee, who was prez 16 years back...

oh yeah, ANOTHER BUSH. :grr:

[MadMaddie]

2. Considering that the middle-class Americans that were buying the

houses, are now making less than they did and the cost of the new housing is so overpriced....I have no sympathy for the homebuilders and their greed.....

On the Eastside of Seattle there was a lovely home on 5 acres....the homebuilders bought out the home owners and put 25-30 two story homes on zero lot lines....and they are selling them for $500,000 who the hell can afford that....when people can barely afford healthcare if they can afford it at all?

[Doctor_J]

3. 16 years ago the SECOND worst president ever was in office.

let's see if Big Media can connect the dots.

[kestrel91316]

4. The builder who bought the property I rent (2 homes, 2 families, 1 lot)

is refusing to comply with city rules regarding paying us relocation expenses - he MUST pay me $9000 and the other folks $17,000 (they have a child) and file documents and comply with, IMHO, minor red tape in order to evict us. He has utterly failed to do so. The city gave him 10 days to rescind the Notice to Vacate as it was illegal, and he has failed to act. He was trying to claim the land is two lots and I think he provided forged evidence (that the city laughed at).

I am getting the feeling that money is tight and he has not bothered to consult a good landlord-tenant attorney like we have, lol. He is SOOOO poor - his company makes $50 million a year in infill construction, lol.

If he's not careful, he's going to get prosecuted for ignoring the law. Why do builders knowingly buy land that carries a financial obligation with it, and then try to get out of that obligation by making up shit out of thin air???

[David__77]

5. Cry me a frickin river.

Because the credit bubble is bursting, of course. Now they'll have to return to a normal housing market in which they cannot make easy superprofits. Were they smart, they'd have realized it was temporary and planned accordingly.

[On the Road]

6. I Had a House on the Market for Almost Three Months

just got a contract this morning. What a relief.