Source: Yahoo! News —
National Association of Home Builders CEO Jerry Howard joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the state of the housing market, home builder sentiment, inflation, Fed interest rate hikes, a housing recession, and the outlook for the housing market going into 2023.
Video Transcript
– Well, US housing starts, they were down 0.5% in November to its lowest level since August of 2020, while building permits tumbled roughly 11% to their lowest level since June of 2020. The National Association of Homebuilders CEO, Jerry Howard, is here to discuss. Jerry, great to have some of your time this morning. What we’ve also seen, even in the earnings of some of the companies that have reported for– where we are still seeing some weakness, it’s not just in the number of homes that are starting to be contracted, but it’s also in the prices that people are willing to pay for homes. Where do you expect there to be some strength that the industry can eventually see, especially as the Fed is continuing on its own pathway in this rate policy?
JERRY HOWARD: Well, first of all the area of strength is one that is always strong, and that’s the very high end of the market. Those who are buying second homes and the very wealthy, they have money now. They can afford it and they’re still buying. So the builders that focus in that segment of the industry are doing relatively well.
The rest of the market is not looking very strong for ’23. I’m particularly concerned with the first-time home buyer quadrant, and I’m concerned with that because that really dictates the health of the entire chain of housing. And so it’s very, very difficult to build at that price point right now. And it’s something that we’re watching very carefully.
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