Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009 | 10:09 a.m.
Sun Archives
- County sees 42 percent drop in building permits (2-17-2009)
- Economist: Now might be ‘most difficult part of this recession’ (2-13-2009)
- Recovery expected to be slow (2-10-2009)
- UNLV researchers: Recession gets worse in Las Vegas (2-3-2009)
- Total decline in median price of homes could top 50 percent (2-2-2009)
- Builder calls timeout as housing slide worsens (2-2-2009)
- Experts say housing’s future is cloudy (1-30-2009)
- Prediction: Las Vegas home-price decline will hit 52 percent (1-30-2009)
Homebuilders in Las Vegas and around the nation continue to struggle against the tide of foreclosures depressing the real estate market, with a new report showing U.S. housing starts in January plunged more than 50 percent from the rate one year ago.
The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development today said privately owned housing units authorized by building permits in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 521,000, down 4.8 percent from December and off 50.5 percent from January 2008.
Privately owned housing starts in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 466,000, off 16.8 percent from December and 56.2 percent from January 2008.
In the Las Vegas area, the most recent statistics for December from the U.S. Commerce Department show builders obtained permits for 491 units in December, including permits for 163 single-family homes and 328 multifamily units in 21 projects. That's off from permits issued for 764 units in December 2007, which included 258 single-family homes.
Homebuilders hope the stimulus package approved by Congress and President Barack Obama along with Obama's $75 billion plan to mitigate foreclosures announced today will help revive the industry.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index released Tuesday today showed builder optimism remains at an all-time low this month – indicating that homebuilders have seen essentially no improvement in the market for new, single-family homes.
"Clearly, the market for new single-family homes remains very weak at this time," NAHB Chairman Joe Robson said in a statement. "However, looking forward, we are certainly hopeful that the newly passed economic stimulus bill, which includes some favorable elements for first-time home buyers and small businesses, will have a positive impact that will help get housing and the economy back on track."
"Home builders are especially concerned about the continually rising number of foreclosures and short sales, which are flooding the market with excess inventory and undermining overall home values," NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said in a statement. "This is one reason that home builder expectations for the next six months declined in the February Housing Market Index even though traffic of prospective buyers has improved somewhat and present sales conditions were basically unchanged. We are therefore looking forward to working with the Treasury Department as details of its plan to address the urgent foreclosure problem emerge."
Provisions in the overall stimulus package that should help stimulate demand for housing include an improved $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit, the NAHB said.
Steve Green can be reached at 990-7714 or [email protected].
Join the Discussion:
Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.
Full comments policy