Posted on 08/16/2024 7:50:07 AM PDT by fwdude
The numbers: Construction of new homes fell 6.8% in July compared with the previous month, as builders scaled back new projects.
Housing starts fell to a 1.24 million annual pace from 1.33 million in June, the government said Friday. That’s how many houses would be built over an entire year if construction were to continue at the same rate each month as in July.
The data fell short of Wall Street’s expectations of a 1.34 million pace. All numbers are seasonally adjusted.
Housing starts fell to the lowest level since May 2020. Outside of the pandemic, new-home construction was at its lowest level since March 2019.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
Builders are building less, it costs too much to build and it's hard to sell with houses so high.
My Dad taught me,
“If there’s big money involved, somebody’s gonna find a way to cheat.”
There’s big money involved in the housing market.
Fixers are hard to come by. All dried up. Gotta wait for people to die.
Existing houses are a lot easier to deal with when available.
Cue the Biden “I did that” pic...
Question-1980: Would Trump have squished Carter more than Reagan did?
Prices of everything are through the roof (no pun intended). Lumber, sheetrock, plywood, wiring, plumbing, fixtures, heating & cooling systems, EVERYTHING! Bidenomics sucks, and I do not believe their stats. Inflation is much higher than what they want us peasants to believe. $450k is now the national average for a house. That’s not a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 car garage place on a nice piece of property in a low crime area.
In N.J. .....Fuggedobowdit.
Builders are building less SPEC homes.
Single Family home construction is UP from 2023 to 2024.
What is down drastically is MULTI FAMILY home construction. There are no new apartments being built. There is almost a record amount of apartment buildings being delivered in 2024.
Most of these were permitted 2-3 years ago. This is a direct result of interest rates.
Single family home construction is up across the country. Except in places like Florida and Texas where the national home builders built like crazy the previous couple years.
However, a large percentage of those homes were NOT sold to individuals. They were sold to corporations like Holiday Homes and Blackstone and several others. Now, those companies are not buying. They are selling. Especially in Florida.
In the rest of the country there is still a huge demand for smaller single family or semi detached homes. Smaller houses for first time home buyers and for all the BOOMERS that want to downsize. The Boomers own their existing house. If they sell it, they will pay CASH for the new smaller home.
“No one can afford the inflated cost of borrowing money.”
The interest rates are quite reasonable considering inflation.
I have yet to hear a builder, real estate agent or self-identified would-be homebuyer call for a balanced budget amendment (or Warren Buffett-style controlled spending amendment).
“Warren Buffett...constitutional amendment...any time there is a deficit of more than 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, all sitting members of Congress will be ineligible for re-election”
Bidenoomics.’
What would one expect from something barfed up by an idiot?
Perhaps.
“Fixers are hard to come by. All dried up. Gotta wait for people to die.
Existing houses are a lot easier to deal with when available”
We moved into our current home in 1977 and got a loan to add a master bedroom, another bath and remodel the kitchen.
Like many people in our age bracket, we decided to age in place and fix our home as our kids moved out. My wife was an RN, and she knew what we would need in our current home as senior citizens.
At this time 3 homes within a stone throw are undergoing the renovation to accommodate Aging in place for those families.
We agree to buy this $400,000 house for the payment of $300,000, with the seller to be given a recorded assignable option to buy it back anytime during the years 2045 and 2055 for the amount of $400,000 less the costs of repairs needed place it in good marketable condition.
The buyers shall have the right to buy that option within the years 2024 to 2029 for $100,000 plus $10,000 for each full year elapsed since the date of closing.
The seller agrees to pay a commission of 3% to his real estate broker on the $300,000 purchase price during closing. The real estate broker agrees to accept that payment as payment in full by the seller.
Problem is cheap homes are available only in areas where the crime rate is too high. It’s not worth it.
Fewer homos being built, and current home prices going thru the roof, means that the prices of available homes will go higher than most people can afford. And rents for apartments also going much higher,and that means that, people won’t be able to pay to live anywhere.
All that means that Kamala will have to take set prices for homes and apartments, in order to make them affordable. Homes and apartments and payments for them, will become owned by the federal government. Add that to setting prices for food and energy and medicines and medical care and for home insurance and car insurance, and then mandating people only buy EVs. and VOILA!, a completely communist country, AKA: a completely ruined economy and country.
In California, the legal ability to place four housing units on a single-family lot exists (or is likely to). Florida recently voided covenants barring pickup truck parking. California might void unit count covenants.
In California, a single-family house plus its lot is priced accordingly, not what the Gringo family can afford, but what the Martinez, Lopez, Rubio, and Cortez familias can afford.
I have a buddy who got into the Stair lift business about fifteen/twenty years ago. He installs and repairs existing stair lifts. He has more business than he knows what to do with. The business now employs his whole family.
It allows elderly people to stay in their family home when they can no longer climb stairs safely.
Every once in awhile I like to call him and leave a message on his answering machine “that I have fallen off the lift and I can’t get up”. Just to keep him on his toes. So to speak.
good data here:
https://www.nahb.org/news-and-economics/housing-economics/national-statistics/starts-and-permits
Move to West Virginia. You can buy a house in the state capital Charleston for under 100K. You can buy a really nice house for $500-600K in a nice neighborhood.
Same story in Indiana and Kentucky.
You can buy a brand new house outside of Oklahoma City and Tulsa for under $300K.
The problem is that the coasts are more expensive than many people can now afford. Florida, Texas, ID and AZ were cheap places to live at one point. Now many parts are expensive.
via Google:
Yahoo Finance
https://finance.yahoo.com › news › being-private-landl...
17 hours ago — Becoming a private landlord in Britain no longer makes financial sense, the boss of property listings website Zoopla has said.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.