Multiple Factors Affecting Housing Market Decline
By Heide B. Malhotra, Epoch
Times
Housing market experts lack confidence in an improvement in
the housing market, especially the construction sector. Some are pointing
fingers at the weather and others are blaming banks unwillingness to take
mortgage lending risks. Many suggestions are hitting the air waves, but no one
comes forward with solutions to help the housing market getting back to normal.
It is easy to blame the weather or economic conditions, when
earnings decline and economic indicators are in a freefall, said a February
article on the Daily Gains Letter (DGL). DGL and some market experts state that
blaming the weather is a little farfetched. Instead, one should look at
weaknesses inherent in the housing market.
“Judging by all the headlines, you’d have to be daft to
think the sharp decline in housing market construction could be blamed on
anything but the weather. But if you actually delve into the numbers a little,
you’ll see that weather is the least of the housing market’s problems,”
according to DGL.
Weaknesses in the
Housing Market
Just to name one problem, new construction has been
lackluster in the Northeast, Midwest, as well as in
month builder National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing
Market Index (HMI) fell during March in all regions. It fell by four points in
the South and three points each in the Northeast and
The HMI is derived from a monthly survey of NAHB members.
Survey questions include rating of market conditions for the sale of new homes
over a certain period of time. It also asks to predict the number of possible
future buyers of new homes.
According to NAHB, reasons for the drop in builder
confidence are the lack of building lots being in short supply and skilled
labor is hard to find.
FitchRatings does blame the snow and rain storms for a
decline in new construction of housing, but includes a caveat that other
concerns affecting the housing market come also into play.
CoreLogic did an in-depth analysis on the effect of weather
on the housing market and found that weather conditions do affect the market.
But, the weather condition is not “sufficient enough to counteract the current
weakness in the market.”
In a March report, the National Association of Realtors
(NAR) said, “constrained inventory, restrictive mortgage lending standards and
housing affordability less favorable than a year ago,” is affecting the housing
market.
Mortgage as Major
Impediment
Besides the weather and construction industry confidence,
other major housing market weaknesses are mortgage availability and job
growth.
“Mortgage credit isn’t nearly as easy to get as it was
during the housing boom, and it shouldn’t be,” stated a recent article on the
HousingWire website.
However, the same article states that as long as lenders
sell their mortgages to the two mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,
they don’t need to tighten their underwriting standards. Actually, mortgage
lenders might still reduce these standards even further to increase their
lending activities.
Lending activities were far lower in the first quarter of
2014 over the fourth quarter in 2013.
According to an early April report by Inside Mortgage Finance, new home loan
securities issued by the two mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
declined by 29.1 percent between the two quarters.
Furthermore, the volume of securities sold by the two
mortgage giants dropped by 63.7 percent in the first quarter of 2014 over the
first quarter in 2013. These decreases in providing funding to the housing
markets represent the lowest quarterly total in 14 years.
The latest Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Mortgage
Credit Availability Index (MCAI) increased by 0.44 percent in March over
February. The MCAI focuses only on mortgage credit. Therefore, MBA states in
its analysis that this is indicative of a loosening of credit.
Atypical Cause for
Housing Market Problems
Mortgages, unemployment, builder confidence are generally
used to analyze the housing market. However, a recent report by Michael
Lombardi, states that homebuyers have been backing out of their contracts in
large numbers.
“Underlining the strong sales of homes, the number of
cancelled sales orders compared to overall sales (commonly referred to as the
cancellation rate) is going through the roof,” said Lombardi.
The builder KB Home’s first quarter 2014 financial results
publication states that in the first quarter of 2013 and 2014, 30 percent of
all contracts were cancelled.
Builder D.R. Horton, Inc. disclosed in its 2013 annual
report that in 2012 and 2013, as a percentage of gross sales orders, 24 percent
of contracts were cancelled.
NVR, Inc. the parent company of
NVHomes, Fox Ridge and Heartland, disclosed in its annual report that for all its
homes, contract cancellations amounted to 15 percent in fiscal year 2013 and
2012 and 14 percent in 2011.
The problems in the housing market have a number of origins
of which the most prominent are mortgage availability, true unemployment
situation and builder confidence.
The majority of house market predictions are lackluster. The CBS Money Watch
predicts that mortgage rate will be capped at 5 percent, but easier to obtain.
Housing inventory will drop significantly and home affordability will drop because
of investors’ home buying spree. Overall, less people will be able to afford a
home and more will become renters.
