Builders Are Dramatically Limiting Starts Of New Homes
Builders continued to reduce the pace of new-home construction in March amidst ongoing erosion in the overall economy and credit markets, according to the latest figures released today by the U.S. Commerce Department. Total housing starts fell nearly 12 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 947,000 units for the month, while single-family starts fell 5.7 percent to a rate of 680,000 units.
Best Cities For Home Sellers by Forbes
Behind The Numbers
To find the other cities on our list, we looked at the country’s 40 largest metro areas and assessed how friendly conditions are expected to be for sellers this year. Each city was ranked by its 2007 unsold vacancy rate, calculated by the U.S. Census American Housing Survey, and how much the market had tightened or loosened when compared with 2006 conditions.
Then we looked at construction starts, as tracked by the National Association of Home Builders, to see if building starts would compound or alleviate vacancy woes. Next was job creation, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as a way to measure the local economy’s ability to absorb or offset housing losses.
Sacramento Year-Over-Year Home Prices Drops 18.6 Percent
NEW YORK, NY – February 1, 2008 – In what seems like a sea of bad news, three of the cities
tracked by the RPX prices show persistent strength, according to the RPX Monthly Housing
Market Report released today by Radar Logic Incorporated.
“As volume in RPX contracts continues to grow, we are seeing more investment and trading
strategies emerge within the 25 cities we currently publish,” said Michael Feder, Chief Executive
Officer of Radar Logic Incorporated. “The November monthly research report shows that RPX
offers investors the opportunity to successfully trade disparities in regional and local housing
markets.” The RPX Monthly Housing Market Report is published by the Radar Logic
Incorporated research department under the direction of Jonathan Miller, Executive Vice
President.
Existing-Home Sales Rise in November, Market Likely Stabilizing
Existing-home sales rose slightly in November, indicating a stabilization in housing in the wake of mortgage disruptions earlier this year, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
Total existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 0.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 5.00 million units in November from an upwardly revised pace of 4.98 million in October, but are 20.0 percent below the 6.25 million-unit level in November 2006.