Yesterday’s housing data were suitably glum, with single-family starts and permits both down (0.7% and 3.4%, respectively). And what about my favorite metric, the number of houses under construction? It fell a hefty 5.3%. Which puts the number of single-family homes under construction at its lowest level in decades: After the expiration of the new home [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Housing’
A New Low in Home Construction
Posted in Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged Housing on July 21, 2010 | 1 Comment »
What To Do With Fannie and Freddie?
Posted in Finance, Regulation, tagged Fannie Mae, Finance, Freddie Mac, GSE, Housing on July 19, 2010 | 5 Comments »
The Economist asked several experts to recommend options for resolving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two failed mortgage giants. In addition to comments, the magazine’s web site allows users to recommend responses they like. It’s hardly scientific, but since the rankings (as of 9:15pm eastern time) work to my favor, let me rank them [...]
The Rise and Fall of World House Prices
Posted in International, Macroeconomics, tagged Housing, Macroeconomics on June 29, 2010 | 1 Comment »
The Bank for International Settlements has a great chart of house prices in its latest annual report (p. 39): The rise and fall of U.S. house prices (red) is painfully familiar. The U.K. (brown) outdid the U.S. on the upswing, but hasn’t corrected quite as much. (Some other European nations also saw strong booms, but [...]
Single Family Construction Still Flat
Posted in Macroeconomics, tagged Housing, Macroeconomics on April 16, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Today’s housing data are driving some optimistic headlines about the 1.6% increase in housing starts in March and the upward revisions to February data. Looking a bit deeper, however, one finds that single-family starts actually fell in March; all of the gain came in multi-family units. As I’ve noted in previous posts (here, for example), [...]
1.2 Million Fewer Households, More Overcrowding
Posted in Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged Housing, Recession on April 7, 2010 | 6 Comments »
During the initial years of the housing downturn, optimists sometimes offered the following argument: “Everyone has to live somewhere. If a family loses their home to foreclosure, they will become renters. Their new residence might be smaller and less desirable than their former home, but from the perspective of housing units it’s a wash: their [...]
Is Home Construction Bottoming?
Posted in Macroeconomics, tagged Housing, Macroeconomics on March 16, 2010 | 12 Comments »
This morning the Census Department released its latest look at housing activity. The headlines are that housing starts fell by 5.9% in February, mostly because of weakness in the Northeast and the South (which may well reflect February’s terrible weather). Most of the decline was in multi-family; single-family starts were essentially unchanged. Although starts and [...]
Good Charts from the ERP
Posted in Economy, Finance, Health, Macroeconomics, tagged Finance, Health, Housing on February 15, 2010 | 7 Comments »
Last week, the Council of Economic Advisers released its 2010 Economic Report of the President (ERP). I haven’t had time to read it yet, but I did take a quick spin through looking at the charts and getting a feel for it. The first thing I noticed is that the folks at the CEA have [...]
The Fannie and Freddie Anomaly
Posted in Budget, Finance, tagged Fannie Mae, Finance, Freddie Mac, Housing on August 31, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Can anyone explain the stock prices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored enterprises that are supporting our mortgage market? On Friday, Fannie’s common stock closed at $2.04 per share, up 250% since the start of August. That values the company–to be precise, the privately-owned common shares in the company–at more than $2 [...]
Step Two of a Housing Bottom?
Posted in Economy, Macroeconomics, tagged Housing, Macroeconomics, Real on August 19, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Yesterday’s report on residential construction provided more evidence that step one of a housing bottom is underway — and that step two may be beginning. Total housing starts fell slightly in July because of weakness in multi-family. But starts of single-family homes increased to 490 thousand (at an annual rate), the fifth straight monthly increase and [...]
The Charming World of Las Vegas Real Estate
Posted in Economy, Finance, tagged Housing, Las Vegas, Real Estate on August 18, 2009 | 15 Comments »
Over at Time Magazine, Joel Stein has an amusing / troubling article (“Less Vegas: The Casino Town Bets on a Comeback“) about the perils of Las Vegas real estate (ht Anne Canfield). The juiciest part of the article recounts how real estate agent Brooke Boemio advises clients to exploit the realities of the collapsed housing [...]
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