The Builders Association of the Twin Cities (BATC) just released the latest version of their hot sheet. Items worth noting include:
- Some economists from the NAHB (National) are forecasting an overall housing turn around in 2008. (I can’t say that I agree with them, but who am I?). Despite the forecast for a turn around, new home sales are supposed to continue dropping from 828,000 in 2007 to 781,000 in 2008 for a 5.6% decline.
- Buyer traffic was up significantly in September on a percentage basis. Of course, August was such a disaster given the collapse of the sub-prime market and all the related news…one would have expected September to have seen a large increase (see page 2).
- While the BATC touts the September permitted units was about the same in September 2007 (732 units) compared to September 2006 (759 units). What’s not clearly highlighted in the press release but it is displayed in the table is that in September 2006, the permitted activity was valued at $163 million compared to the $117 million in September 2007. That’s a decrease of $45 million or nearly 28% in construction value. The builders are building cheaper homes, town homes and condos.