{"id":1004112286,"date":"2015-01-28T14:38:37","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T22:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004112286"},"modified":"2022-12-08T21:02:34","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T05:02:34","slug":"economy-watch-residential-sales-better-but-not-completely-healthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-residential-sales-better-but-not-completely-healthy\/","title":{"rendered":"Economy Watch: Residential Sales Better, But Not Completely Healthy"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long slog for new single-family housing market since the bubble burst, and the industries that depend on a healthy housing market, such as construction and many retailers (and to a lesser extent, the distribution facilities that retailers use). The Census Bureau and HUD had a bit of good news on Tuesday: sales of new U.S. single-family houses in December came in at an annualized rate of 481,000 units. That\u2019s 11.6 percent above the November rate; 8.8 percent above the December 2013 rate; and in fact the highest rate since December 2007, when the air was gushing out of the market.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s certainly an improvement, but it\u2019s also sobering to realize that the current sales rate is about the same as it was during the 1960s, when the U.S. population had yet to break 200 million (which it did just before 1970; these days, it\u2019s more than 318 million). During the years of 1970s, \u201980s, \u201990s and even the earlier years of the 2000s, housing sales were never so low, except during periods of recession. So it could be that housing, while back from the Great Recession abyss, has slipped into a walking-dead state. No one wants it to bubble back to the million units sold during the high of the 2000s mania, but a sustained rate of 600,000 or so would be nice.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the holdup to a full recovery, which hasn\u2019t come despite low interest rates? A number of factors have been suggested. The Realtors are fond of citing tight lending standards, though too loose isn\u2019t a good thing either. Another explanation is that Millennials and others aren\u2019t as likely to buy houses as their parents. If true \u2013 and they\u2019re young yet \u2013 that\u2019s an indirect factor, since relatively young homebuyers buy relatively few new houses, opting for existing properties. But it might slow things down for owners who want to trade up to a new house, if it\u2019s harder to seller one\u2019s house. Also, there\u2019s simply the fact that in a bifurcated economy, the large majority whose incomes are stagnant simply have less wherewithal to devote to what\u2019s arguably a luxury good, a new house.<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t to say that there won\u2019t be further recovery in the rate of new-home sales. Prices, while fairly high, aren\u2019t bubbling again. Millennials are aging, and they are a very large generation, so some of them will be able to afford houses \u2013 and they\u2019ll want them. Also, builders are getting wise to the bifurcation of the economy, and have started offering more less expensive options. For example, D.R. Horton\u2019s Express brand of houses \u2013 which it describes are \u201clower priced\/fewer amenities\u201d \u2013 represented 13 percent of the company\u2019s orders in the fourth quarter of 2014, up from 3 percent a year earlier.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Housing, while back from the Great Recession abyss, has slipped into a walking-dead state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1023,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21742],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004112286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEconomy Watch: Residential Sales Better, But Not Completely Healthy - Commercial Property Executive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-residential-sales-better-but-not-completely-healthy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Economy Watch: Residential Sales Better, But Not Completely Healthy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Housing, while back from the Great Recession abyss, has slipped into a walking-dead state.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/economy-watch-residential-sales-better-but-not-completely-healthy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Property Executive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPExecutive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-28T22:38:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-09T05:02:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dees Stribling\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cpexecutive\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-residential-sales-better-but-not-completely-healthy\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-residential-sales-better-but-not-completely-healthy\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dees Stribling\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/dc1e9fa4ee0430d86f8e60cd697c953c\"},\"headline\":\"Economy Watch: Residential Sales Better, But Not Completely Healthy\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-28T22:38:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-09T05:02:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-residential-sales-better-but-not-completely-healthy\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":488,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-residential-sales-better-but-not-completely-healthy\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-residential-sales-better-but-not-completely-healthy\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.commercialsearch.com\\\/news\\\/economy-watch-residential-sales-better-but-not-completely-healthy\\\/\",\"name\":\"Economy Watch: Residential Sales Better, But Not Completely Healthy - 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