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March 24, 2005

Holy Housing? #2 Thur., March 24, 2005, 11:25 AM

Hey, I have already apologized this month for a 2.2 million annualized rate for U.S. housing starts. Now I guess I'm suppose to apologize that the New Home annualized sales rate has jumped 9.4 percent to 1.226-million.

But, as I see it, builders appear to be building them at an annualized rate of about 1 million units more than people are buying them, and we all know that a lot of the buyers are really investors, who U.S. regulators stopped this week from holding more than four units for re-sale at a time.

And we know that 30-year mortgage rates just in the past hour rose above 6.0 pct, probably on the way to 7 pct or higher. And you all know what is happening with ARM rates.

So, holy housing Steve, who is fooling whom?

And, by the way, what happened today to the homebuilders right after the suckers were pulled into buying at the top following the misleading New Housing Sales report?

Aren't you just thrilled by the new CNBC slogan, "What can we do to make you money today?"

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Posted by Posted by Bill Cara on March 24, 2005 11:27:30 AM | Category: 25 Cons Discretionary , Cara Today in the Market , Economics