Tag Archives: National Association of Home Builders

Housing starts are making a comeback with double-digit increases expected this year, but some states still face a long road to recovery, according to the NAHB.

After experiencing the sharpest drop in two years in February, new home sales increased 1.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 417,000 in March, the Census Bureau and HUD reported Tuesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected March sales to increase to 419,000 from a February's originally reported 411,000. The median price of a new home, according to the Census-HUD report, plunged $17,900 (or 6.8 percent) in March to $247,000, the largest month-over-month decline since February 2011.

Despite some obstacles in the homebuilding recovery and three consecutive monthly declines in the National Association of Home Builder's homebuilder confidence index, Capital Economics remains largely optimistic about the homebuilding rebound. The analytics firm is sticking with its previous prediction that housing starts will reach about 1 million this year and 1.3 million next year as rising home prices help to mitigate increases in construction costs.

Housing starts jumped 7.0 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,036,000, the Census Bureau and HUD reported jointly Tuesday. Multifamily starts (which increased 31.1 percent) accounted for all of March's gains, while single-family starts actually declined 4.8 percent. While the trajectory for both starts and permits shows a clear increasing pattern as the recovery marches on, residential construction activity remains far below pre-recession levels.

With the price of a new home barely above year-ago levels, builder confidence fell for the third straight month in April, dropping two points to 42.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) wants people to know they may not be saving money by purchasing older homes. NAHB compared the cost of owning a home built before 1960 to the cost of homes built since 2008 and found that after taxes, the total cost of owning a home in its first year is about 23 percent more for an equally-priced older home.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) endorsed a housing finance system that phases out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but maintains a degree of federal support.

New home sales fell 4.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 411,000 in February, the sharpest drop in two years, the Census Bureau and HUD reported Tuesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected a smaller drop to 425,000 from January's originally reported sales of 437,000. January sales were revised down to 431,000. The sharp drop in sales combined with a steep price increase suggests builders are facing some price pushback from buyers for new homes even as supplies of existing single-family homes remain at historic lows.

One of the most interesting results of poring through economic data reports is that the details often tell a different story than the headline. Coverage of the recent report on housing permits and starts, for example, was dominated by the increases in both metrics, suggesting a revival of the housing sector, a response some analysts suggested is due to tight inventories of existing-single family homes on the market. However, a closer look revealed a more important phenomenon.

The National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) Improving Markets Index (IMI) showed no signs of slowing down in March.