U.S. House Prices And Starts Drop The Most On Record
A Commerce Department report released yesterday states that house prices in the U.S. fell by the most in over eighteen years with November prices declining by 8.7 percent from a year earlier.
Moreover, housing starts fell 16 % last month to an annual rate of 550,000 which is the lowest since the government started compiling statistics in 1959.
A major cause is reckoned to be the record number of foreclosures and the highest jobless claims in over twenty six years.
The U.S. lost more than 2.6 million jobs in 2008, the most since 1945, and U.S. stocks had their worst performance since the ‘Great Depression’ and the number of U.S. houses in foreclosure last year rose to an all time high of 2.3 million.
The West Coast which includes California showed the sharpest declines in the house price index and the value of homes there fell by 22 %.
Furthermore, there’s no sign that the housing market has hit rock bottom and many observer believe that data will continue to show a worsening trend until at least 2010.
Shares in construction companies fell 76% over the last three years and builders are slashing their margins to compete with the prices of foreclosed properties which always sell at steeply discount prices and this fact offers perhaps one of only upsides to all the gloom and despair.
There are now some incredible deals available to those that can qualify and banks need to loan money to stay in business so provided you believe that you’ll keep your job this might be a great time to consider purchasing a property.
