Jane

As Housing Market Struggles, Homebuilders Focus on Survival

It is amazing how many experts write articles on homebuilder stock, the new home market, etc, without ever mentioning that factors that just MIGHT matter include: rampant shoddy construction and code violations; worthless warranties; abusive arbitration clauses; hidden complaints due in large part to arbitration clauses; builders having a big part in creating a housing bubble with artificially inflated prices and mortgage fraud, and so on. These problems, despite being ignored by mainstream media and many "experts," exist and have had a hand in the current economic problems...more than most casual readers know. I doubt the casual reader of economic information realizes that six of the big builders were fined last year alone, (plus I don't know how many smaller builders), for lending law violations. Despicable that they just pay a fine instead of being really held accountable for their hand in this mess. That's just one example. Investors who are really doing their homework would do well to research and consider these things. If they had, perhaps many Americans would not have seen their investments go up in smoke by leaving their retirement funds in the hands of "experts" who failed to "see the housing crash coming." Many saw it coming,and warned. Far too few experts paid attention.

NAHB May Be On Its Way To Irrelevance

I personally would love to see the NAHB disappear. Over the years this trade group has pumped many millions into lobbying for causes that ultimately harm consumers and protect bad builders. Good builders have grumbled privately how they think membership in builders groups is useless, just a cost of appearing to be qualified in the public's eyes, like membership in the BBB or local builders associations.

Good builders privately admit the industry has pushed for more and more shortcuts, that seriously shorten the life of new homes and force homeowners to incur many more expenses than they should have to. If only these good builders had taken the reins a long time ago instead of letting their industry become corrupted. If only that kind of money had instead been invested in education on PROPER construction, instead of legally advising members how to protect their assets and avoid liability.

The question is, will the NAHB disappear as they should, re-emerge as some new but equally useless group, or just continue to exist as is?

It's about time good builders again took control of this industry and restored it to respectability. Maybe w/the NAHB out of the way, they can. Restoration of credibility to this industry isn't going to be done by underhanded lobbying and spin. It'll be done by building houses right and honoring their contracts, for each and every customer, every single time. Only those builders who can do that tend to survive downturns, and only those who can do that, should. Most of today's builders, including publicly traded ones, have lost their way and should not be in business. Today's houses are far too often "disposable," the owners just don't necessarily realize it until it's too late.

Down Payment Assistance Cancelled For Builders [Housing Tracker]

IMO it's a good thing down payment assistance (DPA) programs were banned. Over the last few years I've seen them called a "scam" by the IRS because the "charities" doing them are basically just laundering money for builders. Artificial price inflation, risky loans, getting people into houses they can't afford, and increased foreclosures because of these things is NOT helping Americans achieve homeownership, it's helping Americans ruin their credit and finances for years to come. It is part of the cause of the bubble and bust. What I still find idiotic is there are still so many people in and out of the industry, and in govt, who STILL insist that we must stop the drop in house prices. This value was never real, and in some cases was fraudulent due to lenders and builder coercing appraisers to meet the number. Many appraisers have been quoted in the news saying this was going on and they'd get blackballed for not going along. Prices need to come back down to reality, to be in line with incomes. Until they do come down and consumers are again in a financial position to buy a house they can afford, with a loan that isn't risky, housing will not "recover." The economy put too much into housing, we were too dependent on this unsustainable growth and fake appreciation. It was never going to last and if the govt and industry had listened to warnings years ago, they could've reined it in before it got to this situation. Instead this industry shot itself in the foot out of greed. I don't like any bailout idea, but at least the builders didn't get their whole wish list, and at least those stupid DPA's are gone.

What Happens When Builders Fail [Housing Tracker]

At least 4 yrs ago I could see this mess was going to happen and I was not alone. I think it's time the experts started paying attention to what's really going on out there instead of thinking they're insulated from it. Housing bubble blogs, consumer sites, some economists, and many others, all pointed out the bubble was unsustainable and not a good thing. Too many people thought of houses as 'investments' that never went down in value. There was a lot of push from the real estate industry and our own government to buy a house. Toxic loans were praised as "increasing homeownership" with no thought to the FACT many of these buyers could not afford it, and/or were flippers. Mortgage fraud was going on and still is. Without the industry complying with the sham, it could not have reached these proportions, and the industry created the toxic loan products, pushed them, approved them, and sold them as 'investments.' The FBI found two yrs ago that 80% of the fraud was being done by the industry. This industry shot itself in the foot. For anyone in the know to claim this wasn't predicted, wasn't predictable, is ludicrous. Even ordinary people with no special training saw this coming.