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census bureau: Housing Permits Lose Steam In July - 08/18/09 11:07 PM
According to the Census Bureau total housing permits fell by -1.8% in July from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000. 
Interestingly the decline in housing permits in July was driven by multi-family units.  According to the Census Bureau, single family housing permits were up 5.8% from last month but 2-4 unit properties were down -21.7% and 5+ unit properties were down -26.3% from the previous month.
Compared to last year single family housing permits were down -20.3%, 2-4 unit properties were down -48.6% and 5+ unit properties were down -73.2%.
This data is a representation of the broader real estate market.  While demand … (2 comments)

census bureau: Housing Starts Bounce Off Their Record Low In May - 06/16/09 09:35 AM
According to the Census Bureau, housing starts jumped 17.2% in May from their record low in April.
While this is a good indication for the housing sector, it is worth noting that the month over month improvement was driven by starts for 5 units or more which were up 77.1% from the previous month.  Unfortunately, the problem facing the housing market is not the 5-unit properties, it is the single family home market. 
Single family housing starts were up 7.5% from the previous month but were still down -40.9% from the previous year, and 2008 was a really bad year in and … (4 comments)

census bureau: New Home Sales Still Down -34% From Last Year - 05/29/09 08:40 AM
The Census Bureau is reporting that new home sales in April rose 0.3% from last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 352,000, but are still down -34% from last year.
While the new home market remains over shadowed by the existing home sales market in terms of sales and supply volume, it is worth noting that the construction of new homes does have a significant GDP associated with it.  Jobs are created, supplies and materials are purchased, and tax revenues are produced for local municipalities.  In other words, new home construction contributes to the broader GDP for our economy.
Unfortunately, as the … (3 comments)

census bureau: Housing Starts Fall In March - 04/19/09 01:50 PM
According to the Census Bureau, aggregate housing starts took a -10.8% dive in March compared to February when they fell to a 510,000 seasonally adjusted rate.  Additionally, housing starts are still down -48.4% from last March.
In February housing starts made headlines and a Wall St. rally when aggregate housing starts jumped 22.2% month over month.  The back page story behind the data was that the February jump in housing starts was a result of nearly an 80% increase in 5 units or more structures.  The actual percentage change in 1-unit or single family housing starts from January to February was only 1.1%.  In other words, the residential new home market … (3 comments)

census bureau: Homeownership bubble deflating - 02/04/09 12:49 PM
A couple of months ago I wrote a post about a bubble that you don't hear much debate about, the homeownership bubble.  The chart below shows that over the past decade, due to easy credit and cheap money, a disproportionate percentage of Americans than ever before have owned a home.  This trend is already in the process of "correcting".
The reason why that post as well as the new homeownership data published by the Census Bureau is relevant is because it holds the secret as to a housing recovery. 

The Census Bureau recently published their 4th quarter of 2008 homeownership … (6 comments)

 

Mark MacKenzie

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Mark MacKenzie Real Estate Planning

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