Housing Starts to Fall to 3 Year Lows
Author: Joshua Dorkin • URL: http://www.biggerpockets.com/September 18th, 2006 •
Bloomberg is reporting tonight that US housing starts will likely fall to their lowest level in three years when the number is announced tomorrow (Tuesday).
Builders probably started work last month on the fewest new houses in three years as higher mortgage rates discouraged home buyers, economists said ahead of a U.S. government report today (Tuesday).
Housing starts fell to a 1.746 million annual rate last month, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, from the previous month’s 1.795 million. Building permits probably fell to a 1.74 million pace, from July’s 1.763 million, economists said.
In addition, the National Association of Homebuilders is reporting that “homebuilders’ confidence in the housing market dropped this month to a 15-year low.” Looks like all signs are finally pointing to a slowdown we should have had a few years ago.
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Tags: bloomberg, homebuilders, housing, starts
Joshua Dorkin
Charles Feldman
Ted Karsch.
Troy Schuricht
Anwell Tsai
Richard Warren
Jim Watkins
As a remonder, it’s only housing starts (new home builds) and they always overbuild in a hot market. They will work through the inventory, no problem and everyone who wants a (new) home will now get one at a discount
That is interesting. I wonder what the repercussions will be for this in 12 months time. Will it mean a shortage of housing, or do we have so much already that we won’t have to worry about that for a while?
I do not see a “shortage” in hosuing in 12 months (new builds). Cycles don’t change rapidly. In fact, if we have a recession, the glut will continue.