U.S. Housing construction falls in August for second straight month

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. Housing construction falls in August for second straight month

Martin Crutsinger
Canadian Press

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

WASHINGTON (AP) - Construction of new homes in the United States edged down in August for a second consecutive month, providing evidence that the nation's red-hot housing market may finally be cooling a bit.

The Commerce Department reported that construction of new homes and apartments dropped 1.3 per cent last month after a decline of 1.5 per cent in July. The decrease was larger than had been expected and it marked the first back-to-back declines in housing starts in 17 months.

Analysts have for some time been forecasting that the supercharged housing market would slow, but they are not forecasting a repeat of the dramatic plunge in stock prices that occurred in 2000 with the bursting of a speculative bubble.

Instead, analysts believe that housing activity will post a more moderate slowdown with sales tapering off and the gains in home prices slowing and perhaps falling in some of the hottest sales areas.
(snip/...)

http://www.canada.com/businesscentre/story.html?id=8e4a2e78-7019-4226-90c9-3c9c88688d22

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Katrina will skew this statistic for years. n/t

[Straight Shooter]

2. True.

I was talking with a lumber supplier yesterday, and he was telling me that some people having new homes built in this area are having to renegotiate prices with the builders. Ouch!

You think the GOP has a purple band-aid for this problem?