Willy Weasel Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 From the BEEB (my emphasis): US new home sales at 13-year low The US housing market is in a major slump Sales of new US homes fell 2.8% in January to the lowest rate in almost 13 years, official figures have shown. The Commerce Department said sales fell to an annual pace of just 588,000 last month, indicating that the housing market slump is continuing. This was a decline from an annual pace of 605,000 in December, and the third monthly fall in succession. The Commerce Department added that the average price of a new home fell 15.1% in January to $216,000 (£109,000). Its latest snapshot of the US housing market was worse than market expectations. 'No recovery signs' "New home sales is another area where you have continuing news coming out that is not very positive, yet the stocks seem to be shrugging that off," said Richard Sparks, senior equities analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "The number looks like it came in a little bit below what was expected, and it was kind of in the ballpark. "It shows the housing market is not yet showing signs of recovery." The Commerce Department reported last month that sales of new homes in 2007 fell at a record annual pace, dropping 26.4% compared with 2006. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dubai Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 I believe it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buytoilet Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 I believe it... Wait until we see numbers like that over here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdc Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 I don't know about these figures specifically, but they tend to annualise monthly and quarterly figures in the US. (Still 'full crash speed' if it is an annualised figure, mind.) Yep, these figures are Jan 08 over Jan 07, so annual. Also, new homes - so rather like 'new build'. The Case Shiller all homes figure was 9.1% YoY for December - 10.5% from peak so far. http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=69457 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=new...id=aX47cjhUn1SY http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=new...id=aw61M2mwbf48 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Realistbear Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 From the BEEB (my emphasis):US new home sales at 13-year low The US housing market is in a major slump Sales of new US homes fell 2.8% in January to the lowest rate in almost 13 years, official figures have shown. The Commerce Department said sales fell to an annual pace of just 588,000 last month, indicating that the housing market slump is continuing. This was a decline from an annual pace of 605,000 in December, and the third monthly fall in succession. The Commerce Department added that the average price of a new home fell 15.1% in January to $216,000 (£109,000). Its latest snapshot of the US housing market was worse than market expectations. 'No recovery signs' "New home sales is another area where you have continuing news coming out that is not very positive, yet the stocks seem to be shrugging that off," said Richard Sparks, senior equities analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "The number looks like it came in a little bit below what was expected, and it was kind of in the ballpark. "It shows the housing market is not yet showing signs of recovery." The Commerce Department reported last month that sales of new homes in 2007 fell at a record annual pace, dropping 26.4% compared with 2006. Hardly surprising when you consider that US prices are up around 120% in the last decade with some areas up by as much as 200%. Good thing Gordon has kept our HPI at sensible levels so we will not suffer the same fate of a collapsing market. Hang on................ I predict we will drop 50-60% by the time its all over. Maybe 70% in the case of BTL type properties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
symo Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 Wow suddenly my 40-50% is looking optimisitc. Peeps are gonna be hurtin fo sho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willy Weasel Posted February 27, 2008 Author Share Posted February 27, 2008 Here's Econbrowser's take on the numbers: http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2008/0..._prices_fa.html I particularly like this section: The reason to be concerned about this is that the farther house prices fall, the greater the number of homeowners who move into the category of negative net equity, that is, owe more on their mortgage than the home is worth. And the farther into the red a household becomes, the greater the incentive and propensity for the homeowner to default on the loan. More defaults mean more losses and greater risk of insolvency for large financial institutions. And if you think the economy can continue to hum along without those institutions continuing to extend credit, well, we may get some interesting additional data relevant for your hypothesis in a rather short while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash4781 Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 Equity rapidly disappearing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursus Posted February 27, 2008 Share Posted February 27, 2008 A new reality of Equity Release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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