Housing Recovery in U.S. Set Back to 2010 With Market on `Life Support' [View All]

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U.S. Housing Recovery Delayed to 2010 as Market Wanes (Update1)
By Kathleen M. Howley and John Gittelsohn


Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- A recovery in U.S. housing will have to wait at least until next year.

The outlook for the home market dimmed this week as residential construction and mortgage applications fell and loan delinquencies reached a record.

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

New home sales may begin to pick up by the start of the so-called spring selling season, said Toll Brothers Inc., the largest U.S. luxury homebuilder. Existing house sales may take longer. Residential construction and property sales led the way out of the previous seven recessions going back to 1960, said David Berson, chief economist of PMI Group, the mortgage insurer in Walnut Creek, California.

Mortgage applications for home purchases fell to a 12-year low last week and foreclosures rose to record highs in the third quarter, according to reports from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

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. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aUSh9f1ytDTY&pos=2