Home Builders Brace For A Tough 2010

The weak credit availablity and low demand will make 2010 another rocky road for many home builders.  This article details the issues centering on the Home Builder Expo in Las Vegas this month: Home Builders 2010.

Health Bill Will Crush Small Builders

Another example proving not much thought was put into the current “Health Care” bill is the inclusion of:
A provision that penalizes small construction firms if they don’t offer insurance to their employees. Under the bill, businesses with more than 50 employees would have to pay a $750-per-worker penalty to the federal government if any of [...]

New Home Sales Fall 11%, Proof Housing Has A Ways To Go Before Recovery

November new home sales suprised everyone on Wednesday. Most experts felt housing was on a rebound until today’s figures wipped out most all of the gains made through 2009.  For the full story November new home sales sink 11 percent.

Google.org PowerMeter, Watch Your Electricity in Real Time

Google.org has released PowerMeter, a real time application for consumers to participate in monitoring their energy consumption.  The application is free for consumers with “smart meters” already installed.
Per google.org website:
Consumers should have access to data on their personal electricity use, control who gets to see this data and choose from a range of services to [...]

Housing Economic Stats

For the hardcore housing stat junkie.  The NAHB Housing Economics website gives up to date information on:
• Housing Starts
• Building Permits
• New Sales
• Existing Sales
• Mortgage Rates
• Home Prices
• Annual Building Permits numbers by Metro Areas (1980-2005)
• Annual Employment numbers by Metro Areas (1990-2006)
• Annual Housing Starts (1978-2006)
• Annual Population by Metro Areas (1980-2005)
• Demographics, Personal Income and Consumer Confidence
• Employment Indicators and Industrial Production
• Housing Starts and [...]

Top Five Reasons Why Now Is the Best Time to Build a New Home

If you’ve been thinking of building a new home, today’s housing environment offers many reasons why now is the best time ever to do so.  Simple “supply and demand” market forces make today one of the best times to build.

Land Availability – The land rush is over, with demand normalizing prices are dropping and less [...]

More evidence that now is the BEST time to build a home.

As a follow up to Top Five Reasons Why Now Is the Best Time To Build A New Home the Wall Street Journal has written an article of the current state of the home building and remodeling business.
The Upside to the Downturn

07′ – A Year of Stabilization For The Building Industry

As stated in ”Top Reasons To Build Today” the housing industry is going through a correction phase.  2007 will be a year of normalization for the building industry with 2008 showing signs of growth.  Here’s a great article from NAHB broken down by region ”2007 Will Be A Year Of Transition For Most State Housing Markets”.

Latest Construction Spending Data Shows Continued Slowdown

Slowing to a snail’s pace, construction spending continues to fall.  This fact will have some effects on the overall economy at some point.
“Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $863.2 billion, 1.4 percent below the revised September estimate of $875.2 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate [...]

Only 24% of Californians Can Afford Entry Level Housing

A recent study by the California Association of Realtors shows that only 24% of Californians have enough income to qualify for a typical entry-level home at $482,910. What do these numbers tell us? Simply, prices will have to drop before builders and home sellers will be able to move the standing inventory. With lending standards [...]

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