Thursday, August 16, 2007

The Center of all Attention - Housing Starts

Ahead of the Bell: Housing Starts
Thursday August 16, 6:35 am ET
Housing Starts Forecast to Drop in June As Housing Market Slumps

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A measurement of new-home construction is forecast to decline for the second-straight month as developers struggle to sell homes in a slumping market.
The Commerce Department's report, due at 8:30 a.m. EDT Wednesday, is expected to show that construction of new homes and apartments in July fell to an annual rate of 1.405 million units, down 4.2 percent from annual rate of 1.467 million units in June, according to the consensus estimate of Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR.

Housing starts fall to 10-year low
Thu Aug 16, 2007 9:36am ET
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two key indicators in the struggling U.S. home construction sector fell to 10-year lows in July and the number of U.S. workers seeking jobless benefits rose, government reports said on Thursday.
The housing numbers were worse than expected as home construction starts fell 6.1 percent in July and building permit activity, a sign of future construction plans, sank.
The Commerce Department data was another snapshot of the deteriorating U.S. housing industry and weighed on financial markets, which are in turmoil over a tightening of credit and blow-ups in the subprime mortgage market.
"It does look as if builders are throwing in the towel, especially in the South which is where the most difficult markets are," said Pierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision Economics in New York.


Housing Data Hammer Builders
By Nicholas YulicoTheStreet.com Staff Reporter
8/16/2007 11:44 AM Updated from 9:50 a.m. EDT
Beaten-down homebuilder stocks received another bruising Thursday after the government's latest data on housing starts and building permits showed continued deterioration in the residential-construction market.
Housing starts reached an annual level of 1.38 million units in July, down 21% from a year earlier, the Census Bureau said Thursday morning. The level marked the slowest pace of annual starts since January 1997.
Economists expected a rate of 1.41 million starts, according to Reuters estimates. The starts figure was down 6.1% from June.
July building permits, an indicator of future construction, came in at an annual rate of 1.37 million units, sliding 23% from a year earlier and falling 2.8% from June. Economists expected a rate of 1.4 million permits, according to Reuters.

AP
Stocks Manage Late Rally to Close Mixed
Thursday August 16, 6:24 pm ET By Joe Bel Bruno, AP Business Writer
Stocks Pull Off a Dramatic Late-Session Rally to End Mixed, but Uncertainty and Jitters Remain

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street pulled off a dramatic late-session turnaround to close mixed Thursday after bargain hunters lured by weeks of massive declines came back to the stock market. The Dow Jones industrials, down more than 340 points in afternoon trading, ended the day with a loss of just 15.

Toll Brother - Days range $19.95 to $22.64 closed up 3.08%

Actual Census Burea numbers can be seen by clicking the blog heading

Went you look thrugh the fine print of the stats the North East has started more houses under construction NOW than one year ago. This matched with wht I saw in the permits. Ibought Toll Brothers this morning and made a good killing. all the housing companies wen tup today. But not all are based in the Northeast. Becareful in picking and choosing what you buy.



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