Homebuilders are not optimistic that new home sales will be turning around anytime soon. The Builder’s Index remained unchanged from February’s rating of 9. To put this in perspective, a rating of 50 has homebuilders considering the market is poor. Right now they are closer to moribund and destitute.
It is almost hard to believe 4 short years ago builders were raising their prices weekly in many markets across the country. Now they are just trying to survive and hang on.
“There’s a lot of fear and a lot of people sitting on the fence,” Bernie Mark, an economist at the builders group, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. He said the association is “hopeful things will loosen up in coming months,” and forecasts the housing market to “bottom around the middle of this year.”
The builder confidence index was expected to hold at 9 this month, according to the median estimate of 41 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Projections ranged from 8 to 11. The index dropped to a record low of 8 in January. Bloomberg.com.
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I think it's safe to say that with all of the existing homes on the market, the new ones offer little to no value. As long as their is 100s of thousands vacant homes scattered across the country I think they will be in the same predicament. Hopefully things will even out in 2010 and new homebuilders can start making money again.
Yeah, I know some builders that are not doing too well these days. Though I do have to say that many of these guys had it coming to them, they had business plans that were completely unsustainable with the slightest market downturn. The guys that went green early and thought about sustainability are hurting, but they still have work unlike the other guys.
CNN reported good news on the homebuilding front this morning.
I have some friends in the industry who are complianing now and that how better life was for them before. With the house market though it's hard to imagine hard days like what we're facing now.
There's no wonder home builders are doing so poorly. There is overstock and current homes on the market are still overpriced. The only good news is that building material cost have fallen, making it cheaper to now build a home than buy one.
It must depend on where you are from. A lot of my clients are builders. It seems just as realtors that builders are having to change the way they do things. Builders who are stepping up marketing and sales tactics are still doing fine.
Also, a big thing in my area is a lot of builders are getting certified for Green building which is opening up lots of new markets.
I agree with the cautious approach. Trimming back on traditional marketing expenses while becoming more creative on the grass roots efforts will pay dividends in the short term.
We are trying to market out site effectively but with as little money out of pocket as possible. It seems consistency is the most important thing.
Tom
http://www.ownercarryit.com
Website devoted to seller financing.
Consistency is the only way. I have a daily schedule that is adhered to religiously regarding blogging and site marketing. Paying someone else to do it, at least initially, is a little risky. Besides who cares more about your business than you.