Home building takes a big dip + home foreclosures fillings up record high! (incentive, 2009)

[bentlebee]

Government report shows new home construction declined nearly 11% last month, dropping to the second lowest level on record.

Housing starts fall in March - Apr. 16, 2009

[Norsky1]

I think construction of new houses will stay down in my area for a good 5-10 years. We are way overbuilt, there are homes from 07 built that no one has ever even lived in. Glad I didn't go into the construction trade when I had the decision of what to do.

[LongIslandCitizen]

Good post. Not surprised that the numbers are still plummeting. Don't buy into the media hype that the bottom is here. Still a long way to go.

[annerk]

Some areas ARE seeing signs of recovery. Others haven't hit bottom yet. Still others simply haven't been affected and in a few rare cases have continued to see prices climb. There is no "one size fits all."

[almost3am]

I think this is good for current homes on the market, as supply from builders will be lower, which should help us work through our inventory backlog. This could help us level out faster.

[jsimon521]

I'm not a fan of new construction. Trust me, by NO means am I some environmental-freak, but the fact that we keep building and building and building (often times with poor quality construction) scares me.

Hahaha, just like there's plenty of kids out there that need adopted, there's plenty of older homes that needs some tender lovin' care too! But with the population expanding so quickly, new construction cannot be avoided entirely. However, I can't help but think that 70% of people who are building are merely trying to keep up with the Jones' and living beyond their means in order to do so.


The one good thing about this recession is that I think it's making (some) people re-prioritize their lives and realize what's really important, like family. We don't need so much STUFF to be happy.

Better stop here- I feel a big rant coming on!

-Jenn :O)

[LongIslandCitizen]

Originally Posted by annerk

Some areas ARE seeing signs of recovery. Others haven't hit bottom yet. Still others simply haven't been affected and in a few rare cases have continued to see prices climb. There is no "one size fits all."

There are different signs of recovery. Number one are less loans to people that cannot pay them back.short sales and forclosures selling off faster, and conventional loans being issued instead of high risk.

When I talk of prices diving deeper and overpriced homes selling slower it basically effects EVERY market. That is how economics and the laws of supply and demand work. General rule of thumb pre-bubble was 2 and a half your annual salary for for a home. The bubble escalated it to 4,5,6 times your salary.

What we are experiencing now is a deflation and it will continue until prices return to the normal buying range.

[MsFancyPants]

*yawn*

Seriously, do we need a new thread every day from the sky is falling crowd?

I could link to here three more articles on how the decline is leveling off, stock market is back up, etc., etc., etc.

My point is, can you just resurrect the last thread with the same topic and comment on it so the rest of us don't have to navigate through 10 threads aimed at making absolutely positively sure that EVERYONE agrees that disaster is still looming out there.

I don't know how you all get up every morning and face the day. I'd wanna off myself if I felt as gloom and doom as you people do.

[FLBob]

When I looked at US housing numbers a few months back I saw that we had an over supply of nearly 8 million units. That number includes condo's, SFH, and apartments. When you look at places like Miami where more condo units were built in the past 6 years than in the prior 40 years you see that the over-supply is not uniform. Area's that experienced speculative building will continue to see downward pressure on prices. While other areas will stabilize sooner.

One of the biggest drags on our recovery is the fact that so many construction related jobs have been lost. There is no incentives to help put these people back to work and the last thing we need is more new speculative building. The building industries slow down is also the reason that manufacturing is hit hard. Who bought the bulk of the trucks built by the auto companies?

So on one hand the lower new home construction numbers are good, the over supply will eventually be corrected. On the other hand there is no growth which is needed to put people back to work.

We have experienced several months of foreclosure moratoriums by many of the major banks. The hope was that the plans for mortgage mitigation and other programs introduced by the new administration would be taking effect. Now the banks are lifting the moratoriums, and foreclosure filings may surge.

I keep hopping that the wise people running things will eventually see that the only way to turn things around is to provide incentives for those with capital and jobs to spend it improving their homes. Putting the construction industry back to work without building more new homes.

[hammy5]

In my area new construction has just shot up all of a sudden. We have a new developement by own home that is $600,000 plus homes and it was pretty stagnant for a long time. Just in the last couple of months they have about 6 homes going up in there. During the parade of homes the builder had a 1.2 million model open and it already has people moving into it.

There are also other new developements around me that are still building and selling as well.

Kristine