Homebuilders in the News

Robert Harris Homes Shuts Down - Homeowners and In Construction Properties May Have Liens
[The Real Estate Bloggers]
Midsized builder Robert Harris Homes out of Woodstock, Ga has shut down. The metro Atlanta builder shut their doors leaving many with homes under construction with half built homes and no easy way to get their deposits back.

Opportunity Doesn't Knock at Lennar Yet
[Barrons Online]
[Barron’s is] reducing its 2009 forecast for Lennar (ticker: LEN). Orders fell 45% year over year, consistent with our expectation for a 41% decline. [Barron’s] thinks Lennar continues to use aggressive pricing as it looks to reduce spec inventory (the number of completed and unsold homes declined 70% year over year and 47% from the first quarter). [Barron’s] expects year-over-year order declines to improve in the second half of 2008, primarily due to easier comparisons.

UPDATE: Lennar Reassures Investors About Joint Ventures
During its earnings conference call, Lennar Corp. (LEN) worked to soothe investors spooked by its joint ventures.
Industry watchers have long feared these ventures, because the debt associated with these ventures doesn’t appear on balance sheet. Lennar’s joint-venture investments are by far the industry’s highest, according to JPMorgan.

When Builders Go Broke (at BusinessWeek)
Chicago-based Neumann Homes went bankrupt last November, leaving a trail of wreckage in its path. Its worst victims? Homeowners.

Economic Reports Overview

New Home Sales: Sales of newly constructed homes declined 2.5 percent last month, from a downwardly revised, seasonally adjusted annual rate of 525,000 units in April to just 512,000 in May.
On a year-over-year basis, sales are currently down a whopping 40.3 percent and, from the peak in July of 2005, sales volume has declined 64 percent.

Existing Home Sales: Sales of existing homes rose 2.0 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 4.99 million units, 15.9 percent lower than last year at this time. The inventory of unsold homes remains historically high, down slightly from 11.2 months in April to 10.8 months in May.
The national median existing-home price fell to $208,600 in May, down 6.3 percent from a year ago when the median was $222,700. Home prices have fallen most in the West, down 16.0 percent over the last year, followed by a 4.3 percent decline in the Northeast.

…An astonishing one-third of all existing homes sold last month were reportedly either foreclosure sales or short-sales…

Housing Starts: Homebuilders began construction on the fewest number of new homes since early in 1991 as housing starts fell 3.3 percent from a downwardly revised, seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 1.008 million in April to 975,000 in May. This represents a decline of 32.1 percent from year ago levels.

From Other Blogs

FHA Repudiates Housing Rescue Bill
[naked capitalism]
We've taken a dim view of plans to use government sponsored enterprises like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and the Federal Housing Administration as vehicles to prop up a housing market that, even with its decline to date, is still overpriced in many areas of the country relative to incomes.

For This, We Need Harvard?
[Motley Fool]
For the first year or so of the current housing apocalypse, investors kept waiting for the market to hit bottom. But lately, there's an emerging recognition that the debacle may be here to stay for a good, long while.
That feeling was enhanced Monday by a study that emerged from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard. While it emanated from the nation's oldest -- and some would say, finest -- institution of higher learning, the study really didn't plow new ground. Indeed, it probably didn't plow all the ground it should have.

U.S. Housing Market Forecast: 2008-2010
[Housing Sector News and Analysis from Seeking Alpha]

The Death of Securitized Mortgages
[naked capitalism]

California Statewide June News

Housing Wire: California’s Prices Off 28 Percent From Peak; Housing Risk in Los Angeles Soars

Study: Bargain-hunters may soon end California's real estate 'free fall'
[SJ Mercury News]
The "free fall" phase of the California housing market bust could end soon, as bargain-hunters begin buying homes in parts of the state hardest hit by foreclosures, according to a new economic report issued by the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Housing Wire: In California, “Back to the Bene” At Record Levels
Lenders — called the “bene” by foreclosure auctioneers, short for beneficiary — took back California foreclosures into inventory at a record pace in May, to the tune of $10.4 billion.

Record low California housing production forecast for 2008

CalPERS: Fund caught off guard by extent of downturn
[SacBee -- California Politics]]
CalPERS stands to lose a chunk of its $947 million investment in a Los Angeles land development that's filed for bankruptcy protection.