Housing Starts Down 54.2 Percent For April, 2009
New housing starts dropped significantly in April, 2009 down 54.2 percent from April, 2008. There were only 458,000 homes started in the month.
The Commerce Department also is reporting new housing starts dropped to levels not seen since 1959. New building permits, an indicator of future building, were also down.
New building permits, which give a sense of future home construction, dropped 3.3 percent to 494,000 units, the lowest since records started in January 1960, from 511,000 units in March. That was well below analysts’ estimates of 530,000 units. Compared to the same period a year-ago, building permits plunged 50.2 percent.CNBC.com.
As I have said before, this is not bad news for the industry as a whole. Sure builders and those in construction are hurting, but for the overall market the lack of new construction is allowing the excess inventory to be absorbed. We all need that right now.
Update:
Interesting interpretation from the National Association of Home Builders. Multifamily units were the hardest hit.
Production of single-family homes edged upward in April as builders responded to improving conditions for new-home buyers, according to newly released figures by the U.S. Commerce Department. While overall starts fell 12.8 percent to a record-low seasonally adjusted annual pace of 458,000 units, the decline was entirely confined to the multifamily sector, where production fell 46 percent to a 90,000-unit pace for the month, while single-family starts posted a 2.8 percent gain to 368,000 units.
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It certainly does not bode well for a fast recovery in the economic climate. This will affect all real estate ...
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Comment by scottsdale luxury homes on 20 May 2009:
Take your real estate classes but also take a basic accounting course, real estate law, any finance course and a course in public speaking. Don’t laugh, you will use all those courses through your career. Also start talking to various brokers and let them know you are taking classes. Whether taking college courses along with taking real estate classes from various real estate companies or independent real estate schools be aware of the market you are in. Also talk to lenders so you know some of what is needed for your buyers. Please learn about Title & Escrow as well. Once you hang your license make sure you become a Buyers agent first not a Sellers agent. When you start with buyers you will be learning along with your buyers some of the issues that can come up in a transaction. If you start on the Sellers side you will be on the losing end of every transaction as most seasoned agents know who is new, knows the contingencies that will let them get out of the contract and you will be left standing holding the bag.
Comment by Scott Costello on 21 May 2009:
scottsdale luxury homes that is a very informative comment. I just signed up for my Realtors license. Although I will be mainly using it as a tool for my investing career, I’ll probably use it as a buyers agent to help supplement my normal jobs income.
Thanks again
Comment by Esko Kiuru on 25 May 2009:
That’s a good sign. If they didn’t build one new house for six months, that would help even more. Supply and demand would then quickly find some kind of a balance and likely to get the housing market marching upward again. But that’s wishful thinking.
Pingback by Obama Administration Fudges Report On Home Construction « Mcauleysworld’s Weblog on 16 June 2009:
[...] “New housing starts dropped significantly in April, 2009 down 54.2 percent from April, 2008. There were only 458,000 homes started in the month. The Commerce Department also is reporting new housing starts dropped to levels not seen since 1959. New building permits, an indicator of future building, were also down. New building permits, which give a sense of future home construction, dropped 3.3 percent to 494,000 units, the lowest since records started in January 1960, from 511,000 units in March. That was well below analysts’ estimates of 530,000 units. Compared to the same period a year-ago, building permits plunged 50.2 percent. http://www.therealestatebloggers.com/2009/05/19/housing-starts-down-542-percent-for-april-2009/ [...]
Comment by Marshall on 13 July 2009:
Okay, but keep in mind housing starts is quite a useless stat considering the excess supply in the existing market, and the aging population–oh and the fact that most people entering into the job market are unemployed…
If you want to start to understand when things will pick up, start watching the ratio of foreclosure sales in relation to foreclosures on the market. When this ratio subsides (aka the market has been cleansed) then you’ll start to see new housing starts pick up again. This is a pretty sweet site that shows month over month foreclosure rate trend data for as aggregate as nationwide–or as granular as zip level. Plus you can integrate the content on your website, which is kinda nice.
Comment by Free Real Estate Agent Training Videos on 28 July 2009:
Interesting blog post. I just an article that indicated the new home sales have increased by 11 percent in June. Let’s hope this is a trend we can all agree is good news for the economy. Kudos!
Comment by Steve Hilliar on 9 September 2009:
You have a terrific blog with heaps of useful information. However in all of the current media hype, slow down in the market etc. There is still very little talk about an agents ability to sell.
How many agents actually understand the difference between making a simple sale and a major sale such as a house?
You can read all about my frustrating experience last weekend with Real estate agents.
http://www.makingmajorsales.com
Steve Hilliar