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Subscribe to RSSThe U.S. housing market continues to struggle, according to new data released Tuesday morning.
The U.S. Commerce Department said housing starts declined more than expected in August, falling 5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000 units as groundbreaking for both single-family and multi-family units moved lower, according to a Reuters report. At the same time permits for future construction increased, the news wire reported.
July's starts were revised down to a 601,000 unit pace, which was previously reported as a 604,000 unit rate, Reuters said. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts to fall to a 590,000-unit rate in August.
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Obama is crushing any chance of economic recovery by CONTINUING failed SPENDING, GOVERNMENT GROWTH, REGULATION, INCREASED TAXATION, while CRUSHING EXPLOITATION of NATURAL GAS and OTHER RESOURCES for 5-10% GDP INCREASES like IN ALMOST ALL OF SOUTH AMERICA, if these GROWTH and SMALL BUSINESS KILLING big government command and control control freaks would CUT GOVERNMENT and SPENDING 20% accross the board we would have building and prosperity
Yes our socialist leader is ensuring this country will not recover while he is our marxist in chief. Fortunately that will probably be over in NOV 2012.
<responded to the wrong post....sorry>
Deflationary crash continues. Home prices are still a bubble compared to historic norm. According to case shiller index, we are still 20% above long term averages. Typical bottom comes at 20% below average. But this is not your typical recession. This is a deflationary crash. This is Great Depression material. These averages themselves are based on a money supply that was inflated by borrowing for many decades. When the money supply deflates, existing prices and salaries cannot be sustained:
www.kondratieffwavecycle.com/housing-bubble-bust/
Whatever you do, do not get into debt. If you want to buy, buy cash down. Even if prices do not fall, in many cases, rent is cheaper if you consider mortgage interest, property taxes, condo fees, maintenance, lost interest/investment income...
No original thought here. Just a repetition of what you hear on Fox "News" on any given day. Madison is the perfect example of a closed minded person with only one source of information
lol. looks like madison from ny is on every page and every post. if i may ask, what do you do really?
lol
Madison From NY: I always enjoy your posts... keep 'em coming !!!
I do my best to post my comments regarding the article, but once in a while, I will post a reply "if I have something positive to say" about "someone else's post.
For what it's worth, it does seem odd that "some people" often post things that "have nothing to do with the article" or "have taken it upon them selves to 'police' the activities of others" and then, there are those "self-appointed grammar police?"
How anyone chooses time to "inquire about other poster's lives" just seems a bit "too spooky". Wow?
peace :-)
I'm old enough to remember well the Carter years, (I voted for Ford in that one), and I never thought I'd hear myself saying this, much less putting it in writing, but Pres. Obama is making Carter (with his 15% and higher interest rates, high unemployment, and international weakness with the Iran hostage crisis) look pretty good. At least Carter had sincerity and integrity in his incompetence. Pres. Obama lacks them all.
And at least he read the Bible often and was not a pseudo religious person.
My take is that Obama is sincerely incompetent...
Man I hope the housing market doesn't take off anytime soon. My wife and I are on track to buy a house in 5 years or so, and I don't want to miss out on these cheap prices.
MSpielman
You better buy before 2012 because when we get a new President things will get a lot better and houseing will start selling higher and be plenty of jobs.
Funny that's what people were saying in 2008.
I'm increasingly convinced the President has virtually no power over the economy, for good or bad. They just take the credit when things perk up, and the blame when they don't.
If you think housing will get better before 5 years from now you are truly delusional. Even if by some chance a Republican gets in the White House there is no way the economy will improve enough to change the course of real estate prices in the next 5 years.
After the 2012 election the Fed will change its course and interest rates will go higher, significantly higher, and with that the amount people can afford will go down. Therefore the purchasing power of buyers will decrease. Which means if you could afford a 300k house now you can only afford one that costs $220k. Housing prices will not increase for a long time. It is just a realistic review of the cost compared to the income of the buyers. There are some people who are buying with cash or lots down, but there are too many people who don't have the money or jobs to purchase homes without it being mostly or all credit.
Dave1958: I am with you 100% on your post. And MSPIELMAN you've got YEARS before anything CAN even begin to turn around.
The entire "concept of owning your own home" has been damaged so badly, it is very difficult to to predict when, but more importantly WHY the U.S. housing market will return.
To make matters worse, that Marxist moron and his brain-dead cronies in Congress are "actually discussing and entertaining the idea of REMOVING the interest-rate deduction from homeowners????"
Great, so as if the housing market hasn't gotten bad enough, some in Congress are trying to make it worse?
BTW, you do not need to be an Ivy League Business School grad or Nostradamus to understand how completely messed up the major mortgage lenders.
Just do a little reading about:
How many Americans are already in foreclosure.
How many are "underwater" and...
How many (wealthy and middle income families) already have and are now "walking away" from their mortgages, even though they "could pay" and knowing it will mess up their credit, etc.
Simply LOOK at how many more are UNEMPLOYED too? There are almost 400 THOUSAND NEW UNEMPLOYMENT applications filed every single month. Yes, those are NEW applications? Yet, there are many Americans walking around since 2009 parroting the word "recovery"??? Newsflash: There never was, is not now and probably won't BE any real recovery for another 5 to 10 years... if at all.
There are so many more reasons why "owning a home" may take another decade before that "concept" ever gains strength again.
There are always "exceptions" and "isolated situations", but for the most part, home ownership looks less and less attractive every day.
There has never been a worse time in American History to be a real estate agent... it is brutal.
At the current pace... houses continue to DROP, DROP, DROP in value. Pretty soon, they may be GIVING THEM AWAY?
Bottom line: Hang in there... you've definitely got LOTS of time!
If you think housing will get better before 5 years from now you are truly delusional. Even if by some chance a Republican gets in the White House there is no way the economy will improve enough to change the course of real estate prices in the next 5 years.
After the 2012 election the Fed will change its course and interest rates will go higher, significantly higher, and with that the amount people can afford will go down. Therefore the purchasing power of buyers will decrease. Which means if you could afford a 300k house now you can only afford one that costs $220k. Housing prices will not increase for a long time. It is just a realistic review of the cost compared to the income of the buyers. There are some people who are buying with cash or lots down, but there are too many people who don't have the money or jobs to purchase homes without it being mostly or all credit.
How exactly will reduced government spending make people more likely to build instead of buying all the vacant, under valued properties that already exist? I mean, I'm not disagreeing with your about government spending but the construction problem is more deeply rooted in the mortgage default fiasco which is tied to unemployment. That isn't going to get better quickly. We need jobs first and to get jobs we need to give the people with money a reason to invest in the American worker again. Then and only then will the construction industry recover.... along with just about everything else. I just hope O realizes this and does something about it besides throw tax money at it. Taxing is a disincentive. It's like the old positive reinforcement thing you do with children. Give them a reason to be good and they will. Do the opposite and you'll get the opposite. We've been doing a lot of the opposite and suffering the consequences of that for a long time.
If you do what you have always done............you will get what you have always
got........SPEND, SPEND,SPEND.................DEBT,DEBT,DEBT
abysmal at this point with Obama and his Drama, from day one in the white house he the president had control of congress but he got so assimilate that he lost control of congress and forgot those who put him in our home yes our white house, while the people of our country are losing their homes from Wall Street Bank corruptions they decided to bail the banks out giving the Blight republicans a chance to reclaim power in congress now all we have a whole 100% charlatan
Next election will all be nepotism no hope and no change the poor is getting poorer and the RICH has all politicians under control like puppets in my eyes
And JUST YESTERDAY, MSN reported that building permits were UP?
WHICH IS IT?
Building PERMITS and building STARTS are two different things.
Supply and demand has a significant impact on housing starts. We have tons of vacant housing now ... why would we build more?
I don't think that housing starts is such as big an economic indicator as it's made out to be. More accurate is how many who are able to stay in their homes and pay their mortgages (or rent).