Housing Starts Fall 14.6 Percent In October

WASHINGTON -- Following a 4.9 percent gain in September, total housing starts fell 14.6 percent in October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.486 million units, according to figures released by the Commerce Department. This was 27.4 percent below the pace from a year ago.

Single-family housing starts were down 15.9 percent in October to a pace of 1.177 million units while multifamily housing construction dropped 9.1 percent to a rate of 309,000 units.

"As builders continue to work off excess inventory, we expect that new housing starts will bottom out by the middle of 2007, with most of the decline occurring this year," said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. "Meanwhile, economic conditions and results from our recent builder surveys show that the demand side of the market appears to be stabilizing as affordability measures move up. Mortgage rates and energy prices have been declining in recent weeks, applications for new home loans are up, consumer sentiment is rising and employment and income growth are on the rise."

Regionally, construction of new homes and apartments for the month fell 26.4 percent in the South, 11.7 percent in the Midwest and 2.1 percent in the West. Starts rose 31 percent in the Northeast, rebounding to a level similar to that reported in August following an unusually low reading in September.

Issuance of total building permits, which can be a harbinger of future housing activity, fell 6.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.535 million units. Single-family permit issuance was down 3.8 percent to 1.173 million units while multifamily units fell 13.6 percent to a rate of 362,000 units.

Google vs NAR - MLS War?

The Real Estate Guide blog has put together an interesting theory on who the major players will be in putting together the elusive "National MLS" database. (click here)

They say "A national MLS will happen. It is an unstoppable force that will come in the industry. The only question is who will create it and control it."

Some of the reasons that they give for WHO will come out on top are:

* Speed to bring the system to market
* Presentation of the information
* Usage Fees
* Limitations on access

They conclude: "Google's Vision seems more noble than the Vision of NAR. Not that NAR's vision is bad, evil or wrong. Just Google's seems divine... like a modern day Ten Commandents."

Click here for the full story.

10 Ways to Stumble in Commercial Real Estate

As the residential market softens, many hands-on real estate investors are turning their attention to the commercial side, believing that they can find more opportunities in office buildings and retail space than in flipping houses and converting buildings to condominiums.

Commercial real estate is a business in which even one misstep can quash a deal or have a negative impact on your earnings for years. That makes it important to identify pitfalls in advance. Here are 10 common mistakes that experts say are often made by neophyte investors and, occasionally, by those more seasoned, Click below for more >

1. No Financial Plan
2. Thinking Location Only
3. Not Researching a City
4. Seeing All Areas as Similar
5. No Thought To Tenant-Mix
6. Miscalculating Costs
7. Miscalculating Returns
8. Taking On Onerous Debt
9. Doing It All Yourself
10. Procrastination

Click here for the full New York Times article By VIVIAN MARINO Published: November 12, 2006

Fannie, Freddie chiefs see danger in new mortgages

According to Reuters, "Popular new mortgage products that have helped fuel the U.S. housing boom will soon lead to more delinquencies and foreclosures as rates are reset, the chiefs of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said Monday." Full article.

Next year, a trillion dollars worth of mortgages will have their rates reset, said Dan Mudd, chief executive officer of Fannie Mae. That's a significant share of $9 trillion in mortgages outstanding, he said.

"Those resets are going to have some very interesting and difficult-to-predict impacts on consumers," Mudd said, noting that many consumers will have trouble keeping up with payments.

One excess of the housing boom has been a glut of financing filtered through new mortgage products, said Richard Syron, Freddie Mac's CEO. "There is too much capital chasing too little profit," he said. "We're all getting squeezed out on the risk curve."