Current Housing Indicators |
| CURRENT | PREVIOUS | ||
| Existing Home Sales | 4.49m | ▼ | 4.74m |
| New Home Sales | 309,000 | ▼ | 344,000 |
| Housing Starts | 583,000 | ▲ | 477,000 |
| Building Permits | 547,000 | ▲ | 531,000 |
| HMI | 9 | UNCH | 9 |
| Existing Home Prices | $170,300 | ▼ (annually) | $199,800 |
| New Home Prices | $201,100 | ▼ (annually) | $232,400 |
More Videos
- The Battered Businesses Behind Housing
- Watch Foreclosures, Seriously
- Home Buyer Tax Credit Expansion Heads to Obama
- Congratulations America, We're All Landlords Now
- Wells Fargo Bets on Housing Recovery
- Home Buyer Tax Credit Done: Does it Matter?
- Better Times for Mortgage Banking
- 'Beleaguered Big Builders' Sitting On Piles of Cash
- Home Buyer Tax Credit: Final Deal?
- A Compromise on Home Buyer Tax Credit?
MOST SHARED
- Pociask: In The Electronics War Does The Consumer Really Win?
- Israel: Leader of Business Innovation
- Mad Mail: Buy the Berkshire Hathaway Split?
- AIG Moving Toward Repaying Bailout: Moody's
- Justices Poke Fun at Patents for the Abstract
- Can Apple Top Microsoft as Most Valuable Tech Firm?
- Obama Sees Strains Unless US, China Balance Growth
- Jobless Rate to Hit 10.5%, Keeping Fed in Box: Poll
- America Is On Sale
- Warren Buffett and the Crisis: 'Brilliant Moves Interspersed with Some Surprising Errors'
- Schork Oil Outlook: More Strength in Crude
- Chrysler Makes Smart Call Staying Unplugged—For Now
- Your Next Move: Thriving and Managing in Limbo
- Yankees Team Signed Ball Selling For $3,500
- Pociask: In The Electronics War Does The Consumer Really Win?
- Why are Options Bullish on This Smartphone Maker?
- Is 10% Unemployment Good for Stocks?
- Jobless Rate to Hit 10.5%, Keeping Fed in Box: Poll
- New Lows for Stocks Next Year: Equities Bear
- AIG Moving Toward Repaying Bailout: Moody's
- Peak Oil Closer Than IEA Forecasts Show: Report
- JPMorgan Is Latest Firm to Reinstate 401k Matches
- Buffett and the Crisis: 'Brilliant Moves...Surprising Errors'
- Stocks Keep on Ticking as Dollar Takes a Licking
- News Corp. May Pull Content From Google Searches
- Yahoo Is in Expanding Mode, Hiring: CEO
RSS FEED
Realty Check
Text Size 
 |
stangls Home Construction |
I know things aren’t exactly rosy in the home building sector these days, but you’d think a 500-point rally in the Dow might nudge the builders up just a little bit. Not so much.
By noon today the Dow was well about the 500 mark, and the S&P Homebuilding index was down over 3 percent.
It seems one sector at least is still trading on the fundamentals. Traffic is just plain poor in the builders’ showrooms. Wachovia analyst Carl Reichardt, who does a Neighborhood Watch” report, says traffic is at its weakest levels since January 2001. In fact, the fourth quarter “may prove (to be) the weakest climate for new home sales since the production homebuilding business effectively began in the late 1940s,” he wrote.
Meanwhile over at Credit Suisse, analyst Dan Oppenheim downgraded Toll Brothers[TOL
Loading...
()
] and Ryland [RYL
Loading...
()
]. Oppenheim sees an additional 45 percent drop in raw land values and very weak order trends. Given continued price drops, he thinks Toll brothers is risky, given its “premium valuation and high-end focus.”
On the brighter side, Oppenheim says “the stocks now reflect overly bearish assumptions for home prices and further asset write-downs,” and he believes the stocks will benefit from less supply in 2009 as well as a potential post-election stimulus.
Paul Puryear over at Raymond James concurs: “I think it’s time to start looking!” He tells me. He calls valuations “compelling” and is buoyed by the government’s intention to turn housing around. Wild card: consumers and the economy. As opposed to Oppenheim, he claims Ryland and Toll have the best balance sheets.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes