US Housing Crisis Not Over: Moody’s

An analyst with Moody’s said today that the US housing crisis is not over and will continue well into 2010.

“I don’t think the housing crisis is over,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody’s Economy.com. “I think we’re going to see another leg down.”

An index measuring November homebuilder confidence came in lower than the median forecast of 45 economists this week. The Commerce Department on Nov. 18 said residential building dropped 11 percent in October to the lowest level since April’s all-time bottom.

“Market conditions in the homebuilding industry are still challenging, characterized by rising foreclosures, high inventory levels of available homes, increasing unemployment, tight credit for homebuyers and weak consumer confidence,” said Donald R. Horton, chairman of D.R. Horton Inc., the nation’s second-largest homebuilder. The company today reported a fourth-quarter loss of $231.9 million on $1 billion in sales, missing analysts’ estimates.

Bloomberg

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.