Another bit of bad housing news
It’s not the best way to start off a new week, but here we go: The sales of newly built homes continued to drop last month.
The good news? The drop wasn’t that big. The National Assocation of Home Builders reported last week that sales of newly built single-family homes dropped 0.6 percent last month.
Problem is, even though it’s a small drop, it’s another one. The sales of existing single-family homes also dropped in June, by 2.6 percent.
The homebuilding industry may be suffering the most right now from the real estae slump. Sure, real estate agents and mortgage loan officers are undoubtedly struggling, too. But we’ve seen a wave of homebuilders declare bankruptcy during the housing slowdown. (And, yes, we’ve seen a wave of mortgage lending companies close their doors, too. But many of these lenders brought their troubles on themselves with shady lending practices.)
When will things get better for homebuilders? Unfortunately, many real estate experts are saying the housing industry won’t really bounce back again until 2010. That’s a long wait if your company is teetering on bankruptcy.
