Posts Tagged ‘Home Builders’
Mortgage Market Still Hampers Housing Recovery
The Realtors say it, the home builders say it, and now the chairman of the Federal Reserve is saying it: “Some creditworthy borrowers are still having trouble getting a mortgage.”
Are Big Home Builder Stocks Too Hot?
Improvement in the jobs market, improvement in potential buyer traffic, improvement in existing home sales, no change in record low mortgage rates…no surprise the analysts are starting to upgrade the nation’s public home builders. Not to mention that we’re getting an unusually warm start to the spring market.
Home Builder Confidence Surges Amid Big Headwinds
Home builders are more confident about their market today than they have been in over four years.
Is It Really That Hard to Get a Mortgage?
The realtors say it, the home builders say it, the architects say it, I've said it: For better or worse, tight mortgage lending standards are one of the big roadblocks to housing's recovery. Now one economist is saying that's not true.
Home Builder Sentiment Posts Biggest Gain in Over Year
Despite sluggish summer sales, confidence among the nation's home builders is gaining strength, posting its largest gain since April 2010, when the now-expired home buyer tax credit brought more buyers into the market.
Spec Building is Back, With a Catch
With consumer confidence weak and getting weaker, and demand for housing showing no signs of resuscitation, home builders today are not only changing their building models, they're changing their business models; that includes returning to a practice that brought many of the builders down in the first place.
Foreclosure Sales Centered in Few States, So Why Should We Care?
Earlier this week, when we got the report of a bump up in sales of newly constructed homes, I cautioned that the home builders are still facing huge competition from distressed properties. Today we have some new numbers showing just how big and how widespread that competition is.
Home Builders Still in the Woods
The best number out of today's report on sales of newly built homes is not the 7.3 percent bump up in signed contracts, it's the drop in inventories to a 6.5 month supply.
Home Builders Hedge Their Bets on Housing Recovery
Several of the nation's largest public home builders reported earnings this week, and I was struck by the way their CEOs spoke of the current state of housing.
Home Builders and Foreclosures: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em
Right now banks are pushing foreclosures to market faster than ever, perhaps due to improving paperwork procedures, and perhaps due to the fear of some kind of settlement/penalty coming down the pike from state attorneys general and federal regulators. In any case, the volumes are rising, and that hurts home prices and home builders.
