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Other Categories => Economy => Topic started by: DejaVu on September 17, 2009, 09:05:25 am



Title: Housing Starts Highest In Nine Months
Post by: DejaVu on September 17, 2009, 09:05:25 am
Housing Starts Highest In Nine Months

by The Associated Press

September 17, 2009

Housing construction rose 1.5 percent last month to the highest level since November as a big surge in apartment building offset a decline in single-family activity.

The August performance, a rebound from July's 0.2 percent decline, was another sign that the nation's housing industry has begun to recover from its worst downturn in decades.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that construction of new homes and apartments rose to an annual rate of 598,000 units last month. That is slightly lower than the 600,000-unit pace that economists had forecast.

The increase pushed building activity to the highest level since last November and left home construction 24.8 percent above the record low hit back in April.

Applications for building permits, a good forecaster of future activity, posted a 2.7 percent rise in August to an annual rate of 579,000 units, slightly below the 580,000 level that had been forecast. Permits for single-family homes dipped by 0.2 percent while multifamily units rose by 15.8 percent.

Leading the August increase in starts was a 25.3 percent surge in construction of multifamily units, a volatile sector which had fallen by 15.2 percent in July.

The larger single-family sector dipped by 3 percent last month to an annual rate of 479,000 units, the first setback following five straight monthly gains.

By region of the country, construction shot up by 23.8 percent in the Northeast and 0.9 percent in the Midwest. Activity was flat in the West and fell by 2.4 percent in the South.

Builders slammed the brakes on construction after the housing bubble burst following five consecutive boom years. The weakness in housing spread to the financial sector as defaults on home mortgages soared. This all contributed to pushing the country into the worst recession in seven decades. Economists believe the overall downturn has ended as well.

Builders have been ramping up because buyers want to take advantage of a new federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers. It covers 10 percent of a home price up to $8,000, and is set to expire at the end of November.

The National Association of Home Builders said Wednesday its housing market index rose in September, reflecting growing optimism in the industry about rising home sales. The trade association said its index rose one point to 19, the highest reading since April 2008.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112912554&ft=1&f=1001


Hopefully more good news!



Title: Re: Housing Starts Highest In Nine Months
Post by: Chazzy on October 12, 2009, 08:52:11 pm
But foreclosures are still going up faster than that. New people losing their homes daily..and i think that the new house are about 200 thousend and up.  What ever happened to a nice house that is moderate..just a old 3 bedroom. I spose they are not good e-nuff for the new home buyer. Hell they might be foreclsed on before they are done.. and like Bill Moyer said , it wud be a jobless recovery.


Title: Re: Housing Starts Highest In Nine Months
Post by: buzorro on February 24, 2010, 09:01:06 pm
Underwater Mortgages Hit 11.3 Million

New data from First American CoreLogic shows why the solution to the problem banks face is so difficult to find. Eleven million, three hundreds thousand homes had underwater mortgages as of the fourth quarter of last year. That number represent 24% of all residential homes loans in America.The mortgage numbers are much worse when homes with equity of less than 5% are included. First American reports that ”an additional 2.3 million mortgages were approaching negative equity at the end of last year, meaning they had less than five percent equity.” That means that three out of ten homes have virtually no financial value to their owners.

http://247wallst.com/2010/02/23/underwater-mortgages-hit-11-3-million/