From 1/1/14 through 7/31/14 new home sales totaled 266,000, down from 268,000 during the same period in 2013. Similarly, single-family starts are up just 3.2% year-to-date and single-family permits are up just 0.8% year-to-date. Single-family activity is, in part, so lackluster because the average new house price hit a new record high of $339,100 last month! At the height of the housing boom in 3/07 the average was just $329,400.
Tag Archives: housing permits
Abominable Abodes
Today’s housing numbers stank! Starts for Jan-June 2014 are up 6% compared to 2013, single-family starts up 1%! Multifamily is up 18%. With these numbers a premature rate hike will kill single-family construction. Yes, weather was bad, prices are up, financing is hard, incomes are down, student loans hurt and there’s no labor, but in 2013Q4 and 2014Q1 housing reduced GDP, the first time since mid-2009. Improvement will come slowly!
Could be Worse!
Greece has been in recession since Q3 ‘08. During that time, new car registrations have fallen 82%, back to where they were in the late ‘80s, and GDP has fallen 18%. Here, at their worst, car sales were down 56% and now are now down just 18% from where they were before the recession. At its worst, US GDP was down 5% and is now 2% above the prior peak.