Posts Tagged ‘construction’
May 19th, 2009 | 
Author: Just released Commerce Department figures indicate that U.S. housing starts dropped to a record low of 458,000 in April.
A 13% decline to an annual rate of 458,000 was led by a 46% decline in multi-family starts, compared to March when builders broke ground on 525,000 homes.
Building permits, which are a sign of future construction fell by 3.3% to a record low rate of 494,000 and taken together the two declines suggest that house prices have not yet reached rock-bottom.
So called experts had forecast an increase to a 520,000 annual pace from a 510,000 previously estimated pace the prior month, and they also forecast that building permits would increase to 530,000 annual rate.
But to give credit where it’s due, Maxwell Clarke, who is the chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal Inc said even before the report came out that, “Weakness in housing continues. Declining prospects for developers should continue to act as a drag on investment and overall output in 2009″.
Overall the housing market is showing some signs of stabilization and confidence amongst U.S. homebuilders in May increased to the highest level since September, and although sales of new homes are still 70% below their 2005 highs, they have risen slightly from their record January lows.
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Posted in builders, building, building permits, Commerce Department, construction, consumer, consumer confidence, crisis, economists, economy, financial crisis, home buyers, home prices, home sales, homebuyers, homes, house prices, houses, housing, housing construction, housing market, Housing Starts, properties, property values, real estate, recession, single-family, US economy | 
Tags: builders, building, building permits, Commerce Department, construction, consumer, consumer confidence, crisis, economists, economy, financial crisis, home buyers, home prices, home sales, homebuyers, homes, house prices, houses, housing, housing construction, housing market, Housing Starts, news | 
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New home sales did better than expected in March.
But they still fell by 0.6% last month.
Median home-sale prices in March were around $7,000 higher than in February.
But they are still far lower than they were a year ago.
Some banks have started returning bailout money amid reports of better than expected profits in the first quarter of 2009, and the stock market has rebounded since early March.
But, the value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average is still at around 60% of what is was a year ago.
Consumer confidence is rising, and consumer spending rose 2.2% in the first quarter which is the most in two years.
But businesses cut spending on equipment and software by 33.8% in the first quarter.
The administration claims that 2,000 new transportation projects have already been approved under the stimulus package.
But the construction sector lost 626,000 jobs between December 2008 and March 2009.
And whilst we’d truly love to believe that the economic crisis has bottomed out, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) estimates that the global economy will contract by 1.3% in 2009 and the U.S. economy by 2.8% which would be the most since 1946.
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Posted in 'bad bank', bailout, banking system, banks, business, construction, consumer, depression, Dow Jones, economists, economy, finance, financial, financial crisis, financial system, global slowdown, home prices, home sales, homeowners, homes, house prices, IMF, interest, job losses, jobless rate, property values, real estate, recession, stimulus, Stock market, Unemployed, Unemployment, unemployment rate, US banking, US economy |
Tags: bailout, banking system, banks, business, construction, consumer, depression, Dow Jones, economists, economy, finance, financial, financial crisis, financial system, global slowdown, home prices, home sales, homeowners, homes, house prices, IMF, interest, job losses, jobless rate, property values, real estate, recession, stimulus, Stock market, Unemployed, Unemployment, unemployment rate, US banking, US economy, ‘bad bank’ |
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