Housing starts plunge 14.3% to 10-year low

Quote from Pa(b)st Prime:

Nice post.

I'm still not sure if the world can die with a Bond market below 5%. I remember looking at a lease on a BMW 320i in probably 1982. (I was flush with cash as a young guy, lol). With finance rates of 19.99% or whatever they used to be, that car was not much cheaper per month than a BMW today!

I suspect housing is much the same. The median priced home in the U.S. is still solidly in the 2's. Not a big deal to carry. Even for a waitress.

I'm also not one to get hyped by home builders and NEW home sales/starts. America is running low on "good" land. Just because the flood of anxious buyers as slowed in the freakin' Imperial Valley doesn't mean that some NBC cameraman is going to be puking is home in Studio City on the cheap.

Part of me still thinks the play is betting that the rich continue to get richer (i.e. exploding asset valuations) while the poor get poorer vis a vis wage pay in devaluating currencies with diminished purchasing power.

We'll see. My guess? Folks get shaken out over the next few years and then hyper inflation.


Median priced home in the 2's. Please point me in that direction, im sure where houses are priced in the 2's that the avg yearly income is 24-40k. Where I live houses are $650,000 and up, 1 bedroom condos $300,000+++. Taxes in some areas as high as 12-15k a yr to live in an area with a good school system. That whole talk about housing being affordable is a MYTH, its out of reach for so many people.
 
Also keep in mind that in the last 5 years or so many consumers were borrowing billions of dollars against their houses, now that housing prices are coming down using your house as an ATM isnt what it used to be. This could hurt consumer spending over the next 12-18 months. With GDP making up 2/3 of consumer spending expect it to slow even more.
 
Quote from S2007S:

Median priced home in the 2's. Please point me in that direction, im sure where houses are priced in the 2's that the avg yearly income is 24-40k. Where I live houses are $650,000 and up, 1 bedroom condos $300,000+++. Taxes in some areas as high as 12-15k a yr to live in an area with a good school system. That whole talk about housing being affordable is a MYTH, its out of reach for so many people.

Hey, I live in TWO of those markets. I too know the reality.

Here's a clue for you. Ownership is not and has never been a right. Except for the 90's asset accumulation has never been easy. Ever hear dialogue in old movies like, "Stocks? Nah, that's a rich man's game."

Many older New Yorker's, Bostonian's and Chicagoan's never owned property in their lives. People MOVED to where they could AFFORD to buy.

Condominiums are a new (70's) thing. Suburbia? Until the 50's it was for rick folks in estates. Most Americans lived in a tenement. Even those with money lived in what's now the "inner city". These days though the manager at Budget is pissed that a 2000sq central air SFO with good schools is out of his reach. Boo fuckin' hoo. It was ALWAYS out of reach, Jack.
 
Quote from S2007S:

Median priced home in the 2's. Please point me in that direction, im sure where houses are priced in the 2's that the avg yearly income is 24-40k. Where I live houses are $650,000 and up, 1 bedroom condos $300,000+++. Taxes in some areas as high as 12-15k a yr to live in an area with a good school system. That whole talk about housing being affordable is a MYTH, its out of reach for so many people.

Couldn't agreed more. I have been looking for a 2 family house in Brooklyn, NY in a decent neighborhood for a while, and I don't see how I can afford it. According to US censor, my wife and I's earning are way about average. Yet, we cannot afford it.

Of course, we can buy it and live on bread and water for a few years.
 
Quote from S2007S:

Also keep in mind that in the last 5 years or so many consumers were borrowing billions of dollars against their houses, now that housing prices are coming down using your house as an ATM isnt what it used to be. This could hurt consumer spending over the next 12-18 months. With GDP making up 2/3 of consumer spending expect it to slow even more.

Exactly - even a leveling out in housing prices (rather than a more probable decline) should lead to decreases in consumer spending. I also think that perception is important here as well - consumers likely spend more money when they feel wealthier, even if they do not actually increase borrowing against their home.
 
Quote from traderdragon2:

As for zillow, its so lagging it worthless. Homes in san diego keep selling 20% below their zillow "zestimate".

I think it depends on the given area. Zillow is spot on in my neighborhood of Denver Metro, maybe off by 3k at the most. But then our neighborhood only appreciates about 3% a year, even during the RE run up of the last few years.
 
Quote from Chagi:

Exactly - even a leveling out in housing prices (rather than a more probable decline) should lead to decreases in consumer spending. I also think that perception is important here as well - consumers likely spend more money when they feel wealthier, even if they do not actually increase borrowing against their home.

Well stated. the RE run up of the last several years fueled the economy in the US almost completely. Unless you work for a defense contractor or own part of the Carlyle Group. The majority of decent paying jobs created in the last several year were RE related, whether it be brokers, construction related, etc.

Let's wait and see what happens when 2 trillion in adjustable loans reset this year. I am glad I am not one of them.

I would not want to be in gentle Ben's shoes right now.
 
Shiller has said that if not an implosion, one of the ways the housing market will destructively deflate is by a relative lack of appreciate when compared to even the most general rate of inflation.

He has said that one model shows housing values losing 40% over a 10% period by failing to appreciate in a manner commensurate with inflation.

This is very similar to what happened in Japan.

Whether by implosion or stagnation, given that housing and its direct and indirect derivative jobs and consumer led spending comprise, conservatively speaking, a fifth of the economic activity in the U.S. (and 6.4% of absolute GDP - directly), it's bad.
 
Back
Top