residential real estate

Housing Starts & Building Permits for June 2010

Housing Starts dropped -5% in June 2010. Last month housing starts were revised to a -14.9% decline from April.

 

 

Privately-owned housing starts in June 2010 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 549,000. This is 5.0 percent below the revised May 2010 estimate of 578,000.

 

 

The below St. Louis Fred graph is the monthly percentage change in single units for new housing starts. Single family housing starts dropped -0.7% in June, which is flat in comparison to last month's -17.2% drop.

 

Housing Market Propped up by the Government

FHA Head David Stevens:

This is a market purely on life support, sustained by the federal government. Having FHA do this much volume is a sign of a very sick system.

Remember when we pointed out the entire residential real estate market is a ticking time bomb, propped up by the government?

Seems the FHA, which is guaranteeing more loans than Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, thinks so too.

The FHA, which backs loans with down payments as low as 3.5 percent, insured $52.5 billion of home-purchase mortgages in the first quarter, compared with $46 billion of purchases of the debt by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to data compiled by Washington-based Potomac Partners.

The FHA and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which regulators seized in 2008, have been financing more than 90 percent of U.S. home lending after a retreat by banks and the collapse of the market for mortgage bonds without government-backed guarantees.

The above quote is in the midst of a feel good existing home sales report:, which increased 7.6% for the month.

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