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Home Builder Confidence Soars

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:43:20 +0000

Home builders have been hampered recently, due to lack of labor, land and supplies. As demand finally comes back to the housing market, many builders have had trouble meeting it; others have slowed production intentionally to take advantage of rising prices. Builder confidence has been rising pretty steadily throughout the past year, but until now had not passed into the positive.

(Read More: As Prices Rise, Banks Repossess More Homes)

All three components of the NAHB index were up substantially, but the index measuring buyer traffic, while up seven points, was still in negative territory at 40. The index gauging current sales conditions rose eight points to 56, and expectations for future sales rose nine points to 61.

Sentiment was also not consistent nationwide. Builders moved further into the positive in the Northeast, Midwest, and South, but confidence slipped in the West, according to a three-month moving average. The number of listings in the West has actually been rising lately, as banks speed up the foreclosure process and release more repossessed homes onto the market. Prices have also been jumping dramatically in markets such as Phoenix, Las Vegas and much of California, slowing sales of existing homes.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100820613

Home Builders Get Jitters for First Time in a Year

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 12:43:06 +0000

Of the three components making up the index, current sales conditions fell one point to 51, still the only component solidly in the positive. Sales expectations over the next six months rose one point to 50, but buyer traffic remained the weakest, falling four points to 32.

(Read More: Foreclosures Fall Due to New Laws)

Regionally the Northeast saw improvements in builder sentiment, as did the West, but the Midwest and South both slipped, down two points each. The Northeast is seeing gains in construction due to the rebuilding effort following Superstorm Sandy. That was apparent in another index released Monday gauging home remodeling. The Buildfax remodeling index showed seasonally adjusted annual rates of remodeling in the Northeast at 636,000 in December of 2012 — up 39 percent from November and up 37 percent from a year ago.

“The last time the Northeast broke 600,000 estimated residential remodels was five years ago,” wrote BuildFax’s Joe Emison in a release. “Unfortunately, the rest of the country saw both month-over-month and year-over-year declines in residential remodeling activity.”

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100469988

Pessimism in California commercial real estate giving way to cautious optimism

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:49:17 +0000

Chancellor Gene Block

Article source: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/pessimism-in-california-commercial-222006.aspx