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December 16, 2008

Housing Starts Continue to Suck

U.S. builders broke ground in November on the fewest new homes since record-keeping began, signaling the housing slump will extend into a fourth year. Dwindling sales and multiplying foreclosures are forcing builders to hold off starting new homes. Decreases in construction spending continue to drag on the economy, increasing the odds of a prolonged recession. “We’re still looking for further declines from here,” said Adam York, an economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina, who had the lowest forecast in the Bloomberg survey. “This is the effect of the economy really slowing down in late September, early October.”
— Bloomberg




Posted by Brownstoner at 10:35 AM | Comments (5)
Categories: Market

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Mr. B...all of us here are trying our hardest to refrain from the use of profanity. And then this headline...

Shame. :)

Posted by: daveinbedstuy at December 16, 2008 10:42 AM

maybe there are enough houses and those who feed at the counstruction industry trough ought retool for something else?

maybe its not such a bad thing that we are pretty much built out.

Posted by: bkn4life at December 16, 2008 10:56 AM

I know this statistic is always used as an idicator of the general state of the economy, but should that continue?

Just as we have a luxury condo glut here in the city, (yes, we do), the rest of the country is filled with finished, and uncompleted homes that never sold, as well as a boatload of foreclosed homes, many in new subdivisions that are now suburban ghost towns. Wouldn't it be better, as the economy revives, to see that the massive inventories are filled before revving up the home building engine?

That has little to do with the person building their dream home, and statistics don't really count them, they really only concentrate on huge new towns of spec homes. Aside from the waste of materials and natural resources, the home building industry is going to have to change in the future. If I were in that industry, I'd move into retrofitting existing homes with alternative heating and cooling, I certainly would not build huge McMansions, with all of their wasted soaring spaces and excess bathrooms, and I'd figure out new ways of making a smaller carbon footprint in my building practices, re-using building scraps and materials, etc.

I really don't think the home building industry is going to recover for the next 20 years. These guys are going to have to get creative, or look for new lines of work, and the way we measure the success or failure of the economy is also going to have to change.

My $.02.

Posted by: Montrose Morris at December 16, 2008 11:01 AM

m dream would be that a lot of these horrible exurban subdivisions get razed. Hopefully this will slow down sprawl for a good 10 years and maybe by then "planned mixed use" developments will be much more mainstream...

Posted by: gkw at December 16, 2008 12:13 PM

gkw
that would only work alongside a campaign of mass executions to thin out the human population so as to let you and your friends enjoy more open countryside.

Posted by: Inigo at December 16, 2008 9:28 PM

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