Browse by Tags

Housing starts took another dive in November, falling another 3.7 percent from the revised October estimate of 1,232,000 starts. Even worse, the seasonally adjusted annual November rate of 1,187,000 starts is 24.2 percent below the 1,565,000 annualized rate of residential construction initiated in November 2006.

...The Federal Reserve also stepped up both Thursday and Friday, pumping billions into the system. The Fed said it stood ready to provide emergency funds to banks and that it would do whatever was necessary to keep markets from what Reuters called "seizing up."

Reuters said that such statements from the Fed are unusual, with the last having come after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, and ...

Two measures of the housing market were released this week and each shows that, at best, builders are remaining cautious; at worst they are showing a bit of despair.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) for June reported that builders' confidence in the market reached the lowest point in over 25 years.

NAHB President Brian Catalde said "Builders continue to report serious impacts of tighter lending standards on current home sales as well as cancellations, and they continue to..."

Will the economy return the favor?

Spring usually provides the strongest home selling period of the year and with interest rates still relatively low and the job market improving the forecast sees conditions "ripe for a firming in housing demand," but acknowledges that there are still problems.