Residential Construction
(DHI) U.S. Housing Industry Still Struggling
The prolonged weakness in the housing industry has extended up to February 2011. Housing starts fell 22.5% year over year to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 479,000 units in February, in contrary to an expectation of an improvement to 580,000 units.
The drop in...
(DHI) U.S. Reports Record Low New Home Sales
New Home Sales in February fell by 16.9% from January to a dismal rate of 250,000. Relative to a year ago, sales are down 28.0%. In a very faint silver lining to an otherwise dismal report, the January rate was revised up to 301,000 from 284,000. Thus relative...
(DHI) U.S. New Home Sales Decline 12.6%
The feeble condition of the homebuilding industry has once again reflected in the home sales statistics for January. New home sales dropped 12.6% to a seasonally adjusted 284,000 units from 325,000 units in December last year. Meanwhile, pending home sales index fell 2.8%...
(DHI) U.S. January 2010 New Home Sales Dismal
New Home Sales in January fell by 12.6% from December, to a dismal rate of 284,000. Relative to a year ago, sales are down 18.6%. The December rate was revised down to 325,000 from 329,000. Thus relative to where we thought we were, it could be seen as a 13.7%...
(DHI) U.S. Home Prices Fall Again in December – Case-Schiller
In December, home prices continued to slip, and the declines were very widespread. The Case-Schiller Composite 10 City index (C-10) fell 0.36% on a seasonally adjusted basis, and is down 1.22% from a year ago. The broader Composite 20 City index (which includes the cities...
(DHI) Multi-family Housing Starts Explode
Housing Starts rose in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of just 596,000 from 520,000 in December, a rise of 14.6%. The December numbers were revised lower from 529,000, so it is possible to see the increase as 67,000, or 12.7%. Relative to a year ago they are down...
(LEN) U.S. Housing Market Index Unchanged in February – It is Still Awful
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Housing Market Index (HMI) was unchanged in February, holding at 16 for the fourth month in a row. The index is a “magic 50” index, where 50 is the dividing line between homebuilders seeing the conditions as been good and...
(DHI) U.S. Housing Starts Fall in December 2010 – Permits Up
Housing Starts fell in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of just 529,000 from 553,000 in November, a fall of 4.3%. The November numbers were revised slightly lower from 555,000, so it is possible to see the decline as 26,000. Relative to a year ago they are down...
(DHI) Economic Update – October 2010 – U.S. Home Prices Still Falling
In October, home prices continued to slip, and the declines were very widespread. The Case-Schiller Composite 10 City index (C-10) fell 0.93% on a seasonally adjusted basis and is up just 0.20% from a year ago. The broader Composite 20 City index (which includes the cities...
(DHI) Second Leg of Home Price Declines Underway
In September, home prices continued to slip, and the declines were very widespread. The Case-Schiller Composite 10 City index (C-10) fell 0.67% on a seasonally adjusted basis, and is up just 1.52% from a year ago. The broader Composite 20 City index (which includes the cities...
(DHI) October U.S. New Home Sales Still Falling
New Home Sales in October fell by 8.1% from September to a dismal rate of 283,000. Relative to a year ago, sales are down 28.5. It’s not like September was a strong month for new home sales, either — the six lowest months on record (back to 1963)...
(DHI) U.S. November New Home Sales Disappoint
New home sales in November rose by 5.5% from October, but that puts them at a dismal rate of 290,000. The percentage increase is a bit exaggerated as well, since the October numbers were revised down to 275,000 from 283,000. Thus relative to where we thought we were, the increase...
(DHI) U.S. Housing Starts Up, Permits Down
Housing Starts rose in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 555,000 from 534,000 in September, an increase of 3.9%. The October numbers were revised higher from 519,000, so it is possible to see the increase as 21,000 or 6.9%.
Relative to...
(LEN) July Begins Second Downleg in Housing Prices
In July, home prices started to slip again, but unevenly across the country. The Case-Schiller Composite 10 City index (C-10) rose 0.03% on a seasonally adjusted basis, and is up 4.01% from a year ago. The broader Composite 20 City index (which includes the cities in the C-10)...
(DHI) U.S. Housing Starts Still Weak
In July, Housing Starts rose to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 546,000, an increase of 1.7% over the 537,000 rate in June. However, the June rate was revised down from 549,000 so, relative to where we thought we were yesterday, it is a decline of 0.5%....
(PHM) Pulte Group – Bear of the Day
Despite being the largest homebuilder in the U.S. with operations in more than 50 markets, Pulte Group (PHM) suffers from high cyclicality in the industry.
The company also faces intense competition...
(LEN) U.S. New Home Sales Collapse
Everyone expected that New Home Sales would be weak, but not that weak. In May, new homes were selling at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 300,000, 32.7% below the 446,000 rate in April and even 18.3% below the very depressed...
(GFA) Cash Flow: One of the Most Accurate Ways to Analyze a Stock’s Value
by Marc Lichtenfeld, Advisory Panelist
Wednesday, June 23, 2010: Issue #1287
What’s...
(DHI) U.S. New Home Sales Impress! $$
New Home Sales jumped 14.8% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 504,000. That easily beat expectations for a rise to 425,000.
Well actually, after the revisions, that would not be a rise. The March numbers were revised sharply higher to...
(PHM) PulteGroup Incorporated – Bear of the Day
Despite being the largest homebuilder in the U.S., with operations in more than 50 markets, PulteGroup (PHM) suffers from high cyclicality in the industry. The company also faces intense competition from the...
(GFA) Gafisa S.A. Prices 74 Million Share Global Offering
Gafisa S.A. (GFA), one of Brazil’s leading diversified national homebuilders, has recently priced the global offering of its 74 million common shares and ADS (American Depository Shares). The ADSs were...
(DHI) Report on New U.S. Home Sales is Just Plain Ugly
New Home Sales dropped to an all time record low in February, down 2.2% on the month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 308,000. The one saving grace to the report was that the January numbers, which previously were the all-time record low, were revised...
(LEN) Investors and Homeowners Ask When Will Housing Come Back?
Yesterday we got news that New Home Sales had fallen to their second all-time record low (since the data started in 1963) in a row. With other areas of the economy clearly on the mend (at least for now) the question...
(DHI) National Association Of Homebuilder’s Index Drops
The National Association Of Homebuilders sentiment index fell to 15 in March from 17 in February. While the index is well off its record low of 8 set back in January 2009, it remains very depressed. The index is set up so any reading below 50 indicates contraction, and the...
(DHI) U.S. Housing Starts Slow
In February, Housing Starts fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 575,000, a decline of 5.9% from the revised January level and just 0.2% above a year ago. While on first blush the data looks quite negative, there are many caveats.
First, while...
(DHI) Total U.S. Construction Spending Declines
In January, total construction spending declined by 0.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 884.1 billion. That is 9.3% below the 974.3 billion rate of a year ago. However, residential construction spending actually rose by 1.1% on the month to an annual rate of $269.2...
(DHI) New Home Sales Report Shows Plunge
We got some very bad news today on the Housing front. New Home Sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000 from 348,000 in December. That is a drop of 11.2%.
The only real silver lining is that the December number was revised upwards from 342,000. The...
(PHM) Pulte Homes Earnings Loss Widens
Pulte Homes (PHM) has shown a loss of $835 million or $2.21 per share (before special items) for the fourth quarter of 2009, driven by weak demand for new homes. This is much broader than the loss of $480...
(DHI) D.R. Horton Returns to Profitability
D.R. Horton (DHI) reported net income of $192.0 million or 56 cents per share for the first quarter of its fiscal 2010, compared to a net loss of $62.6 million or 20 cents per share in the first quarter of...
(GFA) Gafisa S.A. – Bull of the Day
We are reiterating our Outperform recommendation on Gafisa S.A. (GFA). We have been encouraged by the Stimulus Package and the tax relief announced by the Brazilian government during 2009 and the strong economic...