Author: zacharywasser

Speculative homebuilding may cause a single-family housing shortage

Last spring, Vince Phelps, a homebuilder in Lynchburg, Virginia, wanted to build a single-family home “on spec” – industry parlance for a dwelling built without an owner in place. But Phelps was soon frustrated: he couldn’t find a bank to loan him the money he needed to break ground – […]

It’s payback time: housing starts to rebound in March

After snowstorms largely halted U.S. residential construction earlier this year, warmer weather will most likely cause a significant uptick in U.S. housing starts in March. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg posted a median estimate of 1.04 million housing starts in March – a potential 15.9 percent increase from February’s 897,000. Housing […]

The rich get richer, new houses

U.S. housing starts plunged in February as record-low temperatures across the country forced builders to postpone groundbreakings. The weather combined with tight lending standards for homebuyers is likely to result in the sixth-straight year of mediocre, single-digit growth in new housing. Total housing starts fell to a seasonally adjusted rate […]

Housing starts down again in January

U.S. homebuilders started construction on fewer projects in January than in December, continuing a six-year, saw-tooth pattern of ups and downs in housing starts. January housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1.065 million units, 2 percent below the downwardly revised December estimate of 1.087 million. Economists […]