Wall Street Journal – Amid a flurry of housing news this week, including President Obama’s latest mortgage-refinance proposal, comes an interesting piece of real-estate analysis in the building sector.  Metrostudy has analyzed the strongest markets for home builders, which include: San Diego; Southern California; Texas’ Rio Grande Valley; St. George, Utah; and Orlando.

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The U.S. Census Bureau of the Dept. of Commerce announced yesterday that construction spending during November 2011 increased 1.2 percent to an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of $807.1 billion compared with October.  The November figure is 0.5 percent above the November 2010 estimate of $803 billion.

During the first 11 months of this year, construction spending amounted to $724.8 billion, 2.5 percent below the $743.6 billion for the same period in 2010.

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Sales of new single-family houses rose 1.6 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 315,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.

The median sales price of new houses sold in November was $214,100; the average sales price was $242,900. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of November was 158,000. This represents a supply of 6 months at the current sales rate.

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Building permits for single-family homes rose 1.6 percent in November to a rate of 435,000 compared with October’s rate of 428,000, according to a joint release by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.

Single-family housing starts increased 2.3 percent in November to a rate of 447,000 compared with the October figure of 437,000.

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CNN Money - Housing starts shot up to an annual rate of 685,000 in November, up 9.3 percent from October and 24.3 percent higher than a year earlier.

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Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes edged up two points to 21 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) for December. This marks a third consecutive month in which builder confidence has improved, and brings the index to its highest point since May 2010.

“This is the first time that builder confidence has improved for three consecutive months since mid-2009, which signifies a legitimate though slowly emerging upward trend,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “While large inventories of foreclosed properties continue to plague the most distressed markets and consumer worries about job security and the challenges of selling an existing home remain significant factors, builders are reporting more inquiries and more interest among potential buyers than they have seen in previous months.”

Each of the HMI’s three component indexes registered a third consecutive month of improvement in December. The component gauging current sales conditions rose two points to 22, while the component gauging sales expectations in the next six months edged up one point to 26. The component gauging traffic of prospective buyers gained three points to 18, which is its highest level since May 2008.

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One out of three builders reported losing signed sales contracts during the preceding six months because appraisals on their homes were less than the contract sales price, according to a survey by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). 

Builders claim that due to faulty appraisal practices, brand new homes with upgrades get compared to distressed properties that have been sitting vacant and in disrepair. The result, in many cases, has been that the new house gets appraised at less than the cost of construction.

According to the NAHB survey, 60 percent of respondents reported they were experiencing appraisals coming in below their contract sales price.  Of those reporting that they had encountered this problem, 53 percent said the appraisal amount was actually less than the cost of building the home.

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Tight lending standards by the commercial banks on which home builders and developers largely rely to finance their projects continued in the third quarter, according to the most recent quarterly survey by NAHB’s Economics and Housing Policy Group on the availability of credit to the housing industry.

More than half of the single-family builders and developers surveyed by NAHB indicated they had decided to put any new construction or land activity on hold until the financing climate improves.

In normal times, housing accounts for more than 17 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Constructing 100 new-homes generates more than 300 full-time jobs and $8.9 million in local, state and federal tax revenue that supports local schools and communities across the land.

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San Francisco Chronicle – A new kind of home is being marketed to multigenerational households, a category that increased by 30 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  Many builders offer models with second master bedrooms, kitchenettes, and separate entrances.

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California housing production increased for the third consecutive month in October as builders pulled permits for 17 percent more housing units when compared to October 2010, the California Building Industry Association recently announced.

According to statistics compiled by the Construction Industry Research Board (CIRB), permits were pulled for 2,782 total housing units in October, up 17 percent from the same month a year ago but down 26 percent from September. Permits for single-family homes totaled 1,444, down 4 percent from October 2010 and down 8 percent from the previous month, while multifamily permits totaled 1,338, up 54 percent from a year ago but down 38 percent from September.

For the first ten months of the year, permits were pulled for 37,274 total units, up 7 percent when compared to the first ten months of 2010, when 34,745 permits were issued. Permits for single-family homes were down 14 percent, while permits for multifamily units were up 38 percent.

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