Housing Starts Down Again!!

Once the federal tax credit for home buyers ended, housing starts again trended down. The extension of time to close homes under the tax credit program will not stimulate new housing starts between now and the end of September. It will help a number of homebuyers. Wow to think that our Senators now are passing legislation to help those caught in the mountain of paperwork – they require!

17% unemployment rate and Senates are working to assist 80,000 homebuyers that were caught in their bureaucracy to close on their home!

The seasonally adjusted annual housing start rate in May was 594,000. Again, the Senate legislation will not help housing starts between now and October 1st. We need at least 1,200,000 housing starts to stay up with demand. Some analysts think we need 1,500,000 new housing starts to meet the pent-up demand and replenish the housing stock. We have pent-up demand – NOW.

The housing formula:

Jobs Growth + Household Formations = New Housing Starts = Economic Recovery
The only missing element of this equation is jobs growth. Shouldn’t we wage a “war” on our lack of jobs simultaneously with a war on the oil spill?