The Archives
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12.16.08U.S. housing starts drop to new recordThe number of housing starts and building permits both fell to new record lows in a sign that the slump in the U.S. housing market is continuing. Nationwide, total housing starts dropped 18.9 percent in November and were 47.0 percent below last year. Single family starts alone were down 16.9 percent from last month and 46.0 percent from last November. In the south, single-family housing starts slid 13.6 percent from October and 45.7 percent from last year. Building permits last month fared no better: nationwide they were down a total of 15.6 percent for the month and 48.1 percent for the year. Single-family ...
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10.17.08Housing starts take steep fallNew home construction dropped dramatically in September, according to the latest report by the U.S. Commerce Department. Total housing starts, a forward-looking indicator of the housing market, fell 6.3 percent last month. That’s 31 percent below the pace of construction in September 2007 and the lowest reading of the index in 17 years. Economists had predicted a drop of only 1.7 percent. Single-family housing starts took the greatest hit, falling 12 percent from last month and almost 42 percent from last year. In the South, total housing starts rose by 0.5 percent, though they were still 32.5 percent below last year’s numbers. Single-family starts, ...
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09.17.08Another 17-year low for housing startsConstruction of new homes fell to another 17-year low last month according to the U.S. Commerce Department's latest report on new home construction. It’s yet another sign that the country is still in the throes of a housing downturn that has had significant effects across the economy, leading to the bailouts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bankruptcy of investment bank Lehman Brothers, and, most recently, the takeover of insurance giant AIG. Nationwide, new construction slumped a total of 6.2 percent from last month, a far larger drop than the 1.6 percent that economists expected. That’s 33.1 percent below last year, ...
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08.20.08Repeat: Single-family construction hits 17-year lowThe federal government reported yesterday that home building fell sharply last month, yet another sign that the real estate market is nowhere near a bottom. According to the Census bureau report, total housing starts dropped 11 percent from June’s revised numbers and were 29.6 percent below July 2007. Single-family starts dropped 2.9 percent for a year-over-year slide of 39.2 percent. Building permits, which were buoyed last month by a revision in New York City’s building codes, dropped 17.7 percent, a fall of 32.4 percent from last year. Single-family permits shed 5.2 percent to a level a staggering 41.4 percent under July 2007. Single-family ...
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07.22.08Single-family home construction hits 17-year low (again)Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that June’s privately-owned single-family housing starts dropped 5.3 percent from May to hit a new record low. Single-family housing starts fell to 647,000 nationwide, slipping 5.3 percent from the prior record low set last month. Overall, the number of housing units started was 43.0 percent below last year’s levels, falling to the second-lowest levels in 26 years. Total housing starts, including multi-family homes, actually increased 9.1 percent from last month, although this rise is due to a new set of construction codes enacted in New York ...
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06.17.08New home construction falls in MayAccording to a government report released this morning, privately-owned housing starts dropped in May to a new 17-year low with the U.S. Department of Commerce reporting housing starts slipping 3.3 percent from April to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 975,000. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected housing starts to decline to 980,000. Privately-owned starts include single-family residences as well as multiple-unit buildings. Single-family housing starts in May declined 1.0 percent nationwide below April’s figure, also setting a new record low. It was also the fourteenth-straight month of declining single-family starts. In the south, however, single-family starts increased 2.9% from last month, although they were still ...