U.S. home builder sentiment chirpy, near multi-year highs Just a matter of time before sentiment follows home sales/starts lower Stocks follow builder sentiment; ITB perilously close to breaking crucial support Hope springs eternal. U.S. home builders are an optimistic bunch. … Continued
On a day when we are enjoying the blockbuster 3Q GDP numbers comes another data point that points to continued sluggishness in U.S. housing. Yesterday, existing home sales disappointed. Sales were lowest since May this year. I even heard one … Continued
Solid improvement in U.S. home prices comes with cost Peak bubble home ownership at 69-percent-plus anomaly not average Price weakness in recent months plus mortgage-rate tailwind unable to seriously ignite sales Leading up to the epic housing bubble in the … Continued
US housing starts were a real downer in August, down 14 percent month-over-month, to 956k. Multi-family really took it on the chin, down 32 percent (304k), even as single-family relatively fared better, down two percent (643k). Monthly data tend to … Continued
The piece yesterday on U.S. housing was based on June’s numbers. New-home sales data came out yesterday, and it was anything but encouraging. Year-over-year, sales (seasonally adjusted annual rate) rose 12.2 percent but fell 2.4 percent month-over-month. The latter helps … Continued
There was a lot of excitement last week when housing starts/building permits data were released for July. Starts surged 15.7 percent month-over-month and 21.7 percent year-over-year to 1.1mn units (seasonally adjusted annual rate). Multi-family (five units or more) easily outran … Continued
Sales of new homes are struggling to maintain their earlier momentum. The three-month moving average flat-lined for nearly a year before peaking at 448k (SAAR) in January this year. Those for sale (supply) has been gradually inching up as well … Continued
Are we there yet? Have we yet reached the escape velocity? You know the 6.96 miles-per-second speed needed to break free from the gravitational pull of the earth. I am of course figuratively referring to the prevalent expectations that the … Continued