Reprographers, have you hugged your home-builder customers lately?
The National Association of Home Builders said Tuesday (March 15, 2011) that its index of industry sentiment for March improved slightly to 17. That's the first gain in five months, after four straight readings of 16. Any reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment about the market. The index hasn't been above that level since April 2006.
Home Builders still have very negative about outlook for new home construction market.
Imagine that.
If your business was off more that 75%, how would you feel?
Make sure to click on this link to view the annual sales numbers of 11 of the largest home-builders in the U.S.
From 2006 to 2010, their business, collectively, is off a staggering 76.5% !!!
2010 vs. 2009, looks like business hit bottom in 2010. Time to turn up?
Last year was the worst in more than a decade for sales of previously owned homes and the worst for new-home sales in nearly a half-century.
High unemployment, tighter bank lending standards and uncertainty about home prices has also kept many people from buying homes, despite low mortgage rates and home prices that have fallen by more than half in some markets since the peak of the housing boom.
Economists say home prices will hit bottom this year before a modest recovery takes hold. Large swaths of the hardest hit states, including Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada, continue to struggle with foreclosures and short sales, when a lender allows a borrower to sell their property for less than what is owed.
Still, the March reading is the highest for the builder index since last May, when it reached 22. The spring season is traditionally the best for home sales.
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