Posts Tagged ‘CTX’Homebuilders Add New Wing to Housing CrisisThis post first appeared on Minyanville. It appears even the embattled homebuilding industry is getting rosy-eyed, finding enough “green shoots” of economic recovery to stick their shovels back into the ground. In May, US builders broke ground on 17.2% more projects than in April, far exceeding analysts’ expectations. Work on new apartment buildings leaped, while [...] Housing Perspective: March New Home SalesNew Home Sales in March came in higher than expected, even as prices fell from this month last year. According to Bloomberg, the Commerce Department reported that builders tallied sales last month at an annual pace of 356,000, down just slightly from February. Inventories dropped to the lowest level in 7 years, while prices dipped [...] Homebuilders Hoping Size Doesn’t MatterBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. After nearly 3 years of bleeding cash, US homebuilders are on shaky ground. The market for new homes is being decimated by rampant overbuilding during the boom, and by the flood of bank-owned properties now being sold on the cheap. Prices remain in free fall. Even [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Housing Recovery? What Housing Recovery?By ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. This week, 2 data points led optimistic market-watchers to declare the bottom in the housing is nigh: Indeed, one widely read trader-writer proclaimed, “The oversupply of housing that so plagues the market at present will be a figment of our memory a few months hence.” The [...] Fighting Debt With… Debt?By ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Our elected officials appear convinced that Americans should buy stuff they don’t need with money they don’t have. The Senate, in passing its version of the over $800 billion economic stimulus package yesterday, threw a great deal of cash at 2 industries whose products we have [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Capitulation Now!This post first appeared on Minyanville. Finally, housing is starting to act like a market searching for a bottom. Well, sort of. In former boom states like California, Arizona and Florida, distressed sales are driving the local real-estate markets. After a near-complete evaporation of buying activity last year, buyers have been brought off the sidelines [...] Crisis in Prime Mortgages on HorizonBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. The private sector is actively engaging the mortgage crisis with the first broad-based, systemic attempt to prevent foreclosure. Both Bank of America (BAC) and JPMorgan (JPM) are attempting to help hundreds of thousands of troubled homeowners with massive loan modification efforts. Regulators and bank executives are operating [...] Washington Continues to Ignore Root of Housing ProblemThis post first appeared on Minyanville. Some say the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. By that measure, voters should load up on straitjackets this November and drag everyone in Washington off to the nuthouse. Despite overwhelming evidence that we’re in the middle of a [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Realtors Try Used-Car Salesman TacticsThis post first appeared on Minyanville. That glitzy McMansion you’ve always wanted may finally be within reach. Or not. If nearly 3 years of home price declines, historically low interest rates and a relentless media barrage of half-truths from the National Association of Realtors haven’t been able to stabilize home prices, it’s doubtful a gimmicky [...] |