Monday, March 23, 2009

Housing Crisis




By: Corey Mutterperl

With home sales at their lowest levels in as long as people can remember, why are houses still being built? Although there was a slight “building boom” in February 2009, which was good news to people, the numbers show that we are still down 50% compared with February 2008. Sales of both new homes as well as existing homes are at their lowest levels in years. Chief economist for the National Association of Homebuilders stated, “there’s a minimum level of building activity that goes on even in recessions.”  Some are saying that the recent “boom” in February is due to the fact that costs of building new homes have dropped dramatically. Materials to build the houses have decreased significantly and mortgage rates remain extremely low. Development of all types of homes especially single family home projects remains very sluggish causing people to be apathetic about what the future holds for them in the housing market. The NAHB’s Crowe states “there are some signs tat we are bottoming, I am not ready to say we are there we’re still at an awful level.” Hopefully the housing market will have a turn around once the economy gets back on its feet and things will go back to the way they once were.




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