Housing Starts Drop….
by Tom on November 18, 2009
in Market Musings
Housing Starts came in sharply lower for October. Much below what the market had expected and actually down, not just less bad than before. A couple of thoughts about the report:
- Seasonally, this is a normal thing. Very few builders want to start homes in October (at least not in the northern half of the United States where it might snow) because that makes building not nearly as fun.
- The Housing tax credit is not a huge impact on new construction because of the time frames it takes to build a house. If you start designing a house today, you’ll have a hard time getting the house built and the certificate of occupancy by the time the tax cut is done.
- The percentages vary from one geographic region to another, but this is predominantly a first time home buyer driven market. That is not the typical market of people who are buying new construction.
So, it’s another sign that the housing market isn’t as healthy as we’d like.
Tom Vanderwell
Housing Starts Show Sharp Drop; CNBC.com
New U.S. housing starts in October unexpectedly fell to their lowest level in six months, weighed down by a sharp decline in construction activity for both single-family and multi-family dwellings, a government report showed on Wednesday.The Commerce Department said housing starts dropped 10.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 529,000 units, the lowest level since April and the percentage drop was the biggest since January. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected housing starts to rise to 600,000 units. September’s housing starts were revised upwards to 592,000 units from the previously reported 590,000 units.
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