Housing Market Tracker - Investment and Sentiment

Here's our summary of articles and data points on the housing market. It's part of Seeking Alpha's coverage of the real estate market and homebuilder stocks. Like all other topics and stock coverage from Seeking Alpha, you can have this sent to your Blackberry or desktop email by signing up for our no-spam free email subscription service.

Quote of the Day

"The market isn't close to hitting bottom. Many people looking to buy can't because of tightening credit conditions, and those that can, are holding back for fear of buying a depreciating asset.'' - Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. (Bloomberg, Nov. 29th)

Real Estate Investment and Sentiment

• In Housing Downturn, A New Uncertainty Factor (Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 29th): "The last time the economy experienced a real estate downturn, in the early 1990s, the reasons were straightforward: an economic slowdown in regions of the country, rising interest rates, and a growing reluctance by banks to issue new loans. This time... investor jitters are playing as much of a role as banker worries... Investors have sped up the downturn and could deepen it... They have created widespread uncertainty because... bad mortgages [no longer] fester in bank portfolios, the risks are now spread among investment firms, insurance companies, and others. No one knows how broad or deep the losses are."

• Report: Online Real Estate Ad Revenue to Eclipse Newspapers by 2012 (Media Info, Nov. 26th): "Newspaper Association of America: Real estate ad revenue plummeted 24.4% to $1 billion [this year]. Borrell Associates report: By 2012, newspaper real estate ad revenue will hit $3.2B while online real estate ad revenue will surpass that at $3.4B. So far this year, total ad spending on real estate dropped 3%, but online advertising soared 25.8% to $2.6 billion most likely due to a shift of those dollars from print to online. The rate of online growth is expected to slow over the next year -- estimated at around 12% but it should still eclipse newspaper real estate ad revenue.

• Housing Markets Roil Online Advertising Marketplace (Inman News, Nov. 26th): "Sam Sebastian, director of classifieds at Google, observed that newspaper realty ads had "gone off a cliff" and that data suggested the conventional wisdom of increased ad expenditures [in down times, to get more exposure] was "not a valid argument." Sebastian... speculated that realty marketing dollars would "sit on the sidelines" for perhaps six to 12 months while brokers and agents "recalibrated" and "put some dollars in their pockets." After that, he suggested, the market shift could be an important and significant catalyst for growth in online realty advertising."

• Web Bidding Help Drives Live Auctions (Yahoo! Finance, Nov. 24th): "A National Auctioneers Association study found residential real estate auctions have grown 39% since 2003, agricultural real estate grew 33%, and sales of commercial and industrial property surged 27%. Car auctions increased by 10.5% and charity auctions rose 16.5%... Auctioneers were slow to embrace the Internet because it was considered competition, said Ina Steiner, editor of AuctionBytes, a trade publication for online merchants... There are specialty sites like Bid4Assets for real estate and IronPlanet for construction equipment."

• The Upside to the Downturn (Wall St. Journal, Nov. 23rd): "The housing slump has pushed down prices on everything from lumber and drywall to labor and design fees... more homeowners will renovate their kitchens this year -- 7.57 million, up from 7.44 million in 2006 -- but they will spend a lot less, $96.2 billion compared with $127 billion, according to the National Kitchen & Bath Association. Bathroom renovations this year are expected to rise by 5.3% to 10.9 million from 2006, while spending on them will grow 3.8% to $70.2 billion from 2006, the trade group projects. One reason some renovations will cost less this year is the falling price of many key building materials [like] lumber [and] drywall."

Tracking the Housing Market and Homebuilder Stocks You can track developments in the housing market, homebuilder/housing stocks and review subprime news by bookmarking our Housing coverage or subscribing to our free email service. If you have a blog or website of your own, you can track developments in the sector and provide great content for your readers with our Housing Market widget (left). It's simple to add -- just select "Housing Market" from the drop-down menu here.

Comments

[uoha]

Thanks for posting about the Construction!
I hope it get better soon!