United States Economy

» Home builders’ confidence plunges again in July – Market Watch, 17th Jul 2007.

» Real Estate: Awaiting The Foreclosure Time Bomb – CNBC, 13th July 2007.

The news on the US mortgage crisis just gets worse, with little indication the finish is near. Last night, figures released in the US, show house prices in the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller 10 city home price index fell 2.7% yoy. This is the largest decline since 1991. » Home …

Last night it was reported inventories of homes for sale in the US hit a record 4.43 million, a rise of 5% for May. This now represents a 8.9 month supply. This is the biggest number of houses for sale since June 1992, the end of the last housing bust. …

Bloomberg reports the worst is yet to come for the U.S. housing market. “We’re talking about a two- to three-year downturn that will take a whole host of characters with it, from job creation to consumer confidence. Eventually it will take the stock market and corporate profit” said PIMCO Executive …

» Housing recession gets worse – Bloomberg, 20th June, 2007.

In the first year on year decline since 1991, the S&P/Case-Shiller index shows House prices in the U.S. has fallen by 1.4%. The S&P/Case-Shiller index is considered to be a better gauge of the housing market movements as it tracks sales on the same properties. Medium house price data can …

Mixed results in the U.S. housing market for April. On Friday night, figures released for April showed sales for existing homes fell 2.6% to a seasonally adjusted annualised rate of 5.99 million. This was worse than the expected 6.11 million most economists were predicting and is the slowest turnover in …

YouTube has am interesting Channel 10 news story on the foreclosure crisis surrounding California, and the United States in general. The report suggested the California suburb of Sacramento has been one of the hardest hit. In the first three months of 2007, 2% of homeowners in Sacramento defaulted on their …

Last night unexpected results were released for the Reuters/University of Michigan’s preliminary index of consumer sentiment. While the consensus among economists was a likely fall to 86.0, the index actually rose for the first time in four months to 88.7, up from 87.1 in the previous month. » U.S. Economy: …

More poor housing data out overnight from the US, showing building permits fell 8.9% to a 10 year low of 1.429 million. This fall was the largest percentage fall in 17 years. Meanwhile housing completions fell 5.8% to a 6 year low of 1.523 million. Housing completions across the USA …

Overnight in the U.S. the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo housing market index has fallen to 16 year lows. “This weakness suggests we should not expect a sustained rebound in starts anytime soon,” wrote Drew Matus, an economist with Lehman Bros. Data from the Federal Reserve would suggest at …

This video is an insight into the mistakes 24 year old Casey Serin made in the property market. Now Casey Serin tells his tale in the hope of warning other property investors the pitfalls of property speculation. Casey started out trying to make a quick profit in ‘flipping’ properties, that …

More evidence today that the US consumer is curbing spending. Poor retail data out last night caused a sharp fall in the Dow Jones : The International Council of Shopping Centers weighs its results differently and tallied an overall same-store sales drop of 2.3% to set the largest decline on …

Last night US employment data was released for April showing a weaker than expected 88,000 jobs added, one of the worst results for two years. Drilling into the report, it showed Significant job losses in April came in general merchandise stores, where employment dropped by 41,000, and credit intermediation, where …

I came across a video taped guest lecture today from the Department of Economics at Humboldt State University that pretty well sums up the current situation. The guest lecturer was Dr. Christopher Thornberg from Beacon Economics. The lecture was given on the 30th November 2006. » Real Estate Bubbles and …

There are reports today that a four bedroom house in Detroit sold for $7,000, cheaper than many used cars. Detroit which is known for its car industry but this industry has been in decline which is only exaggerating the subprime mortgage problem. Detroit now holds the title of capital of …

The second largest subprime mortgage lender, New Century Financial, last night filed for bankruptcy. It said it would immediately lay off 3,200 employees making up half of its workforce. » New Century files for bankruptcy, is selling units – Market Watch, April 2nd 2007