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Market Research
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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06.06.2007 |
 A fascinating article appeared in yesterday’s Houston Business Journal, “Study names Houston a city to foster solid growth,” which summarized a recently released report entitled, “Opportunity Urbanism: An Emerging Paradigm For the 21st Century.”
The study by Joel Kotkin and the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland Institute at Texas Southern University and California's La Jolla Institute argues that a strategy for growth and development that ensures broad opportunities for all stakeholders in an economy will ensure greater long-term success. | | No comments for this item |
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Real Estate
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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06.05.2007 |
 In our Real Estate News, we have a new depressing article about the national housing scene. In “No bottom yet for housing downturn,” several housing economists are interviewed and the conclusion is that we won’t reach the trough of this downturn until later this year and when we do it will be a slow recovery.
When we talk of a downturn in housing, generally people mean a decline year-over-year or month-over-month in home sales and/or home prices. But since both of these measures are lagging indicators (they tell you how good or bad the prior month was), using them to make decisions about opportunities can be dangerous. It would be like judging your business prospects on how much profit you made last year. | | No comments for this item |
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Economics
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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06.04.2007 |
 Lately I have been discussing the virtues of applying a form of portfolio management to residential housing investments. Whether you are a local builder, a regional developer, a land banker, a lender, or a national developer, your land holdings represent a portfolio. And we’ve got the benefit of decades of research in the broader world of equity investments to apply portfolio management concepts to land investments. | | No comments for this item |
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Real Estate
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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06.01.2007 |
 For the public builders, the biggest news of the day relates to Hovnanian’s Second Quarter Earnings.
According to TheStreet.com:
“‘We are frustrated to report that the housing market has continued to slip further in many locations in terms of both sales pace and sales prices,’ CEO Ara K. Hovnanian said in a statement. ‘The housing market weakened in the latter part of the second quarter and the slower conditions have continued into May. Lower prices offered to buyers to close homes during the quarter also led to a further reduction in margins and a net loss for the quarter.’” | | No comments for this item |
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Builders
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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05.31.2007 |
 Late Tuesday, Pulte announced that it was planning on a an additional cut of 16% of its workforce.
“The restructuring plan will result in a pretax charge of $40 million to $50 million, which will mostly be recorded in the second quarter.
‘The homebuilding environment remains difficult and our current overhead levels are structured for a business that is larger than the market presently allows,’ Pulte CEO Richard J. Dugas, Jr. said in a statement.
The latest cuts come on top of a 25% workforce reduction over the past year and a half, Pulte said.” | | No comments for this item |
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Economics
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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05.29.2007 |
 While continuing the theme from yesterday’s post, today I also wanted to acknowledge the newest set of national pricing data.
The initial S&P/Case Shiller price indices for March were released yesterday. As covered by Paper Money, the March 2007 S&P/Case-Shiller index... | | No comments for this item |
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Real Estate
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Written by Jonathan Smoke
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05.29.2007 |
 Nationally, new home sales were up in April. Existing home sales were down in April. Were new home sales an aberration? Or a result of significant incentives from builders to prime the slow-so-far spring selling season?
Here’s some direct honesty: We don’t know where this national market is heading in the short-term. | | No comments for this item |
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