Housing starts missed by a mile in March. The Wall Street shyster economists missed their forecasts by 14%. Not bad for their $1 million salaries. Even though they knew the weather in March, they predicted a 16% jump in starts. Not only were starts crappy versus February, but they were even 2.5% lower than last March. Temperatures in the U.S. were well above normal this year, versus well below normal during the polar vortex winter of 2014. I wonder how you can blame the weather for the 5.7% decline in housing permits.
Of course, one of the slimiest of the Wall Street slimeballs immediately tweeted that it was certainly the weather which foiled his forecast. The ground was frozen during the above average temperature March.
One little problem with Joey boys analysis:
East – Housing starts up 114.9%
Midwest – Housing starts up 100%
South – Housing starts down 3.5%
West – Housing starts down 19.3%
Was the ground frozen in Los Angeles and Miami? If the ground was frozen in the East and Midwest, why did housing starts more than double? Can you believe idiots like Lavorgna are actually employed at ridiculously high salaries?
The housing market continues to suck, despite the cheerleading from assholes like Lavorgna. There has been no recovery.
Wages suck. Household income sucks. Mortgage application growth sucks. The economy sucks. Wall Street sucks. CNBC sucks. Politicians suck. Everything sucks. Do you understand? Have I been clear enough?
These lies are so old. I think it’s the same article, they just pull it out every spring.
East up 114.9%, Yeah I still have a job for the summer. At least we know where the money is for the time being. One interesting indicator, our million dollar plus home are outselling our $500,000 to $600,000 homes. of course land in the greater Boston area is very expensive compared to many other parts of the country.
Bob.
@Bob, in the Metro Detroit area the McMansions are selling like hotcakes, mainly to the state, federal and union employees that all have received HUGE bonuses and raises, and they actually believe the bullshit that passes for economic “reporting” in this country. My, oh, my, how SHOCKED they are going to be when their balloon notes adjustable interest rate goes way the hell up at the same time their state taxes, to pay for O’care, and their energy (thanks to CarbonScrewing) costs triple.
It is going to be sooooooooooooooo fucking sweet to see these people crying to (unionized and in the same boat) reporters in a couple years. The most ironic part it was the SAME people that did the SAME thing in 2005/2006, right before rates skyrocketed and lending halted.
Yep, the upper end housing, NOT the highest end, are going quick, quick, quick. The lowest end (in my town) are being bought by the city with Obamafunds and gifted to minorities, making sure the socialists stay in power by usurping one of the few remaining non-socialist cities.
Amazing how quickly we forget, especially when the majority have NO want to actually take time away 19 Kids and Counting, or CandyCrush, to actually sit down and learn about the things that are going to destroy their worlds. Nope, can’t be bothered, better to leave your future, money and health to the “experts” the government has so kindly “approved.”
Same thing in Chicago….. high end houses in the “green zone” inner-city nabes close to downtown are selling briskly at prices of $1M and up… WAY up. No problem moving a $1.4M condo with concrete ceilings and open furnace ducts in a treeless west loop neighborhood, or an $18 M mansion in Lincoln Park.
But in the more “normal” non-prime north side nabes of $250K- $400K houses, things are very slow and properties languish on the market for a long time, while most suburbs are languishing and dropping in value, except for the tony North Shore and far west suburbs. Condo prices have ramped up somewhat since 2012, thanks mainly to the REO-to-rental program that has taken hundreds of units in my area alone off the market and away from aspiring first-time buyers.
Never fear, though, our gubermint is cooking up more schemes to inflate house prices and create a “hot” market for overpriced dumps. Fannie Mae is offering to pay up to 3% of the purchase price of the home towards closing cost in addition to offering financing to “qualified” 1st-time home buyers for 3% down, and all the prospective patsy needs to do is take an online home-buyers education course to qualify.
Elsewhere, interest-only loans are also making a comeback. Of course, they are being offered only to “highly qualified” buyers of high-end properties…. for the time being. Now, we all know that there was NO PROBLEM with jumbo mortgages during the Great Rampage of the 00s, was there? And that the bar will remain very high for IO loans just like it did 10 years ago, right? And the ARM loans with 5 year resets will be no problem for high income borrowers who expect to trade into another dwelling in that time anyway, will they?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/interest-only-loans-set-the-bar-high-1420567670
No down payment or 3% down payment, IO loans, ARM loans…all to drive housing prices artificially higher and saddle a new generation of buyers already staggering under crippling student loan debt, with more debt they won’t be able to repay. But as long as all this helps increase “wealth” in the form of inflated house prices, and generates more loan volume, fees and commissions (“economic activity”), it’s all good, isn’t it?