Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums…

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“Builders are very cautiously adding to their diminished inventories in preparation for the spring buying season and an anticipated modest revival in buyer demand when the economy shows more signs of improvement,” said Bob Jones, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. “That said, we are still looking at a very low level of housing production, due largely to builders’ inability to obtain construction financing.”

“The modest increase in single-family starts and permits in November is consistent with a very low inventory of unsold new homes and our member surveys that have shown a degree of optimism among builders with regard to sales expectations in the next six months,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “However, builders continue to find it extremely difficult to obtain credit for acquisition, development and construction activities, and this is weighing on their ability to initiate viable new projects that could generate much-needed job growth.”

The 3.9% gain in overall housing starts this November was due entirely to a 6.9% increase to a 465,000 unit seasonally adjusted annual rate of new-home production on the single-family side. Meanwhile, multifamily housing starts declined 9.1% to a 90,000-unit rate.

Regionally, starts activity showed gains in all but one part of the country in November. The Midwest, South and West each posted gains, of 15.8%, 2.3% and 2.1%, respectively, while the Northeast posted a 2.5% decline.

Permit issuance, which can be an indicator of future building activity, declined 4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 530,000 units in November, its lowest level since April 2009. However, this decline was entirely due to a 23% drop-off in the more volatile multifamily sector, where permits hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of just 114,000 units. In contrast, single-family permits rose 3% to a rate of 416,000 units—their highest level since this June.

Regionally, permit activity was mixed in November, with the Northeast and Midwest registering declines of 8.3% and 22.2%, respectively, and the South and West posting gains of 1.9% and 2.7%, respectively.

For more information, visit www.nahb.org.

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A recent report showed sales of existing homes were also stronger than expected, rising 10%, and the two reports lend support to some economists who believe housing demand hit a bottom in late summer.

“After dropping precipitously following the expiration of the first-time home buyer tax credit, it looks as though new home sales have stabilized,” said Nicholas Tenev, an economist at Barclays Capital. “We expect a gradual recovery over the coming months.”

Still, the pace of new-home sales is 21.5% below the same level of last year. The pace of new-home sales is also considerably below the 414,000 rate in April, when the market was buoyed by a tax credit that has since expired.

There’s also still plenty of supply, with the government estimating supply of eight months of unsold homes, though that’s down from 8.6 months in August. The stock of unsold houses fell 1% from August and dropped 19% from Sept. 2009.

“With little new construction going on, inventories of unsold new homes at least aren’t a problem even with sales at a depressed level, with the number of new homes for sale extending a run of record lows,” said David Greenlaw, an economist at Morgan Stanley.

The median sales price rose 1.5% from August and 3.3% from Sept. 2009 to 3,800—about 30% above the median price of an existing home.

The margin of error for new-home sales is a considerable plus or minus 16.9%.

September’s housing market was only partly affected by a foreclosure moratorium of some leading lenders, which gathered pace in October.

New-home sales, by definition, wouldn’t be affected by foreclosure disputes and in fact could benefit by virtue of purchasers getting “clean” title when buying new properties.

(c) 2010, MarketWatch.com Inc.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Have you heard about RISMedia’s Real Estate Information Network® (RREIN)? RREIN is an elite network of leading real estate companies dedicated to providing consumers and their agents with leading real estate information, and committed to the belief that Information Share Equals Market Share. Having only launched this past June 2010, the RREIN network is already comprised of 40 leading brokerages, which make up 575 offices, 30,000 agents, 167,000 closings and represents over billion in transactions. How can RREIN help your recruiting efforts and differentiate your company today? For more information, email rrein@rismedia.com.

Copyright© 2010 RISMedia, The Leader in Real Estate Information Systems and Real Estate News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be republished without permission from RISMedia.

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“Today’s numbers are in line with our latest builder surveys, which indicate that stability is slowly returning to the new-homes market following the declines we saw upon expiration of the home buyer tax credits and the slowing of economic growth this summer,” added NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “Builders are receiving more inquiries from potential customers and are carefully responding to renewed consumer interest, although their limited access to credit for new housing production is definitely hampering this process.”

All of the increase in housing production in September was due to improvement on the single-family side, which posted a 4.4% gain to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 452,000 units—the strongest level since May of this year. Multifamily starts, which tend to exhibit greater volatility on a month-to-month basis, recorded a 9.7% decline to a 158,000-unit rate following a big increase in August.

On a regional basis, starts activity was mixed, with two regions posting gains and two posting declines for September. The Northeast and South registered gains of 2.9% and 4.8%, respectively, while the Midwest and West registered declines of 8.2% and 3.6%, respectively.

Permit issuance, which can be an indicator of future building activity, declined 5.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 539,000 units in September. This dip was due entirely to a 20.2% decline to a 134,000-unit rate on the more volatile multifamily side, while single-family permits remained virtually unchanged, edging up 0.5% to a 405,000-unit rate.

Regionally, permits fell across the board in September, with the Northeast posting a 1.5% decline, the Midwest a 4.3% decline, the South a 4.7% decline, and the West a 10.6% decline.

For more information, visit www.nahb.org.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Have you heard about RISMedia’s Real Estate Information Network® (RREIN)? RREIN is an elite network of leading real estate companies dedicated to providing consumers and their agents with leading real estate information, and committed to the belief that Information Share Equals Market Share. Having only launched this past June 2010, the RREIN network is already comprised of 30 leading brokerages, which make up 525 offices, 30,000 agents, 160,000 closings and represents over billion in transactions. How can RREIN help your recruiting efforts and differentiate your company today? For more information, email rrein@rismedia.com.

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While the report seemed to point to an upturn in the weak U.S. housing market, most economists downplayed the better-than-expected number. They pointed out that data for multi-family starts, which surged 32.2% in August, is notoriously volatile and represents just a small portion of the housing market.

New construction of single-family homes, which account for 75% of the housing market, rose a much smaller 4.3% to an annualized rate of 438,000. Although it was the first increase in four months, construction of single-family homes is still lower than last year.

“While the volatile multi-family sector was responsible for the overall level of starts in August being higher than expected, the more important single-family component remains severely depressed,” said Chief Economist Joshua Shapiro of MFR Inc.

Starts rose in all regions except the Northeast, where they slumped 24.3%. Big increases in the West (34.3%) and the Midwest (21.7%) offset that decline.

Data on housing starts has always been hard to measure, and the government report is prone to sharp revisions. Complicating the picture was a federal tax credit for new home buyers that expired earlier this year. The credit caused home sales to spike in the spring, peaking at an annualized rate of 679,000 in April, and then plunge over the summer, falling to as low as 539,00 in June.

Economists say the effects of the credit have largely dissipated, giving them a clearer view of the health of the housing market.

“We have found a bottom for housing activity. It’s at a pitiful level, but it should grow from here,” said Senior U.S. Economist Ellen Beeson Zentner of Bank of Toyko-Mitsubishi.

Permits for new construction, a more accurate gauge of home building, increased 1.8% in August to an annualized rate of 569,000.

Permits for condominiums and apartments rose 9.8%, but permits for single-family homes dipped 1.2% to an annual rate of 401,000. Single-family permits are viewed as one of the best indicators of future economic health and tend to draw the most attention of economists.

The housing market plays a huge role in the U.S. It’s usually one of the first sectors to weaken before a recession and one of the quickest to recover as growth resumes. The housing industry also has wide-ranging influence on the rest of the economy, because so many raw materials and finished goods are required to build homes and furnish them after sale.

But the housing sector has struggled mightily since the housing bubble burst two years ago and pulled the economy down with it. Even though experts have said the recession ended in June 2009, the U.S. economy is growing very slowly and the unemployment rate stands near a 27-year high, dampening demand for new homes.

Because of sharp fluctuations in starts data, economists say it can take several months to detect new trends. In the past four months, housing starts have averaged an annualized 567,000, down from 587,000 in the four months ending in July.

(c) 2010, MarketWatch.com Inc.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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“As our most recent member surveys have indicated, builders remain very cautious in light of the sluggish pace of the economic recovery and the hesitancy they are seeing among potential home buyers,” noted Bob Jones, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. “However, today’s report is actually somewhat encouraging, because it indicates that single-family production is stabilizing following an expected lull that occurred with the end of the home buyer tax credit program.”

“The government’s figures suggest that single-family housing production may be finding a bottom following the tax credits,” agreed NAHB Vice President and Senior Economist Bernard Markstein. “Over the next several months, we expect to see some improvement in both housing starts and sales activity as buyers come forward to take advantage of the very attractive home prices, historically low mortgage rates and excellent selection that characterize today’s new-home marketplace. However, builders continue to confront significant challenges in obtaining financing for viable new projects, and this problem remains a formidable obstacle to economic growth.”

Nearly all of the 5% decline in housing production was on the multifamily side this June, which fell 21.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 95,000 units. Meanwhile, single-family starts hardly budged, with a 0.7% decline to 454,000 units. All four regions posted declines in overall housing production, with an 11.3% reduction in the Northeast, a 6.9% decline in the Midwest, a 2.4% decline in the South and a 5.9% decline in the West.

Meanwhile, nationwide permit issuance, an indicator of future building activity, rose 2.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 586,000 units in June. While single-family permits fell 3.4% to 421,000 units for the month, that decline was due entirely to a drop-off in the South, with every other region holding steady or better on the single-family side. Multifamily permits rose 19.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 165,000 units in June. Combined single- and multifamily permit issuance was up 32.3% in the Northeast, down 10.8% in the Midwest, down 3.1% in the South and up 9.7% in the West in June.

For more information, visit www.nahb.org.

RISMedia welcomes your questions and comments. Send your e-mail to: realestatemagazinefeedback@rismedia.com.

Copyright© 2010 RISMedia, The Leader in Real Estate Information Systems and Real Estate News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be republished without permission from RISMedia.