April column for Builder & Developer magazine now online

My column for the April issue of Builder & Developer magazine is now posted online.

For this issue, entitled "The Economic Rebound Continues, Albeit Slowly," I reviewed the variety of good news on the economic front.  While the rebound certainly isn't robust enough as in past recoveries, it is still largely in positive territory.

An excerpt:

Housing starts, long seen as one of the best forward-looking indicators of future sales and leasing activity, rose by nearly 35% between February 2011 and 2012 to 698,000 units.  Although the increase in starts for multi-family structures was far higher than the overall average at 108%, single-family starts still rose by 17.8%.  During the same time period, building permit activity rose by about the same amount, posting an overall increase of 34.3% and averaged by gains of 23.6% for single-family homes and nearly 60% for multi-family buildings of five units or more...

...both consumer and building confidence are holding their own even after the recent rise in gas prices.  For consumers, as long as gas prices don’t float up to $5 per gallon, their optimism about the improving job market is helping the University of Michigan’s Index of Consumer Sentiment to hold onto the last five months of gains. Similarly, NAHB’s Housing Market Index continues to hold at 28, its highest level since June of 2007.  So, while the housing rebound may seem uneven and spotty, it is definitely underway....

To read the entire column, click here.

To read the entire April 2012 issue in digital format, click here.

2011 in Review: A Rebound Delayed is Not a Rebound Denied

In 2011, a not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the rebound: it was delayed. Whether due to poor consumer confidence, tighter credit standards, high unemployment, delayed foreclosures or some combination of the above, it’s become clear that millions of potential households have delayed the move to their own, private abodes until the economy -- and their aspirations -- improve. But both things are actually getting better – albeit very slowly.

About a year ago, I wrote about how this doubling up with friends or relatives had actually meant that the country was technically under-housed to the tune of well over 3 million households. Given continued population growth, that is even more true now, but with the unusually slow rebound from the Great Recession, builders and developers have had to exercise yet more patience while shepherding future projects along.

However, aside from continued troubling signs from Europe, the economic news is gradually beginning to improve. For example, U.S. GDP, which squeaked along at 0.4% and 1.3% in the first and second quarters of 2011, respectively, accelerated to 2.0% by the third quarter. Retail sales are up, led mostly by gains in cars and electronics. Both business sales and industrial production are rising, and the consumer price index recently declined, suggesting that inflation is being kept in check.

From the point of view of the building community, sentiment is beginning to improve after multiple months of treading water, with the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index rising to 20 in November, or the highest level noted since May of 2010. In addition, the national Housing Opportunity Index (which measures housing affordability) has been consistently rating above the 70% mark since the beginning of 2009. According to the Improving Market Index, 30 metro areas made the list for November as the homeownership rate reversed months of decline to rebound slightly to 66.1%, and housing prices seem to have stabilized in most places.

Even building permits, which had struggled throughout most of 2011 to match 2010 levels, are finally rising, although that’s mostly due to the year-to-date performance of the multi-family sector (+32%) versus declines for single-family permits (-8.4%). Still, October’s permits were the highest since December 2010 for single-family homes and October 2008 for multi-family units.

Nonetheless, there remain considerable headwinds weighing on the nation’s housing market. The economy is simply not where it should be at this stage of the business cycle, which has meant continued weakness in the job market. Both pending home sales and the remodeling market continue to struggle, and annualized new home sales remain stuck at about 300,000 units with an inventory timeline of just over six months. Annualized sales of existing homes continue to hover close to the five-million-unit level with an inventory timeline of about 8.5 months

Moreover, looking towards the long term, there is a concern that the weakness in the housing market over the past few years will have a larger impact on household formations, due mostly to both marriages and new births being delayed by those in their 20s and 30s. Indeed, up to two million such households which would otherwise be looking for their own homes have had to postpone those plans due to economic or social duress.

And of course a lower birth rate could certainly put additional pressure on long-term safety nets such as Social Security and Medicare, which require a robust tax base to meet promised obligations. But hopefully that’s a problem which will be more than reversed as the nation’s builders eventually gear up to address the pent-up demand silently but steadily building up nationwide.

Economic rebound in Southern California?

Although the local economy in Southern California still seems dismal, according to various economic indices, it may finally be on the mend. From an L.A. Times story:

Signs are increasing that an economic turnaround has begun in Southern California, even as residents and businesses continue to struggle in the worst downturn in decades.

The state's exports are growing as overseas consumers, especially those in Asia, are demanding computers, electronics and agricultural products from California. Tourists are starting to return to the region's hotels and beaches. And home prices appear to be stabilizing in some of the Southland's hardest-hit markets...

In California, a new report by Comerica Bank showed positive trends in the state's economy in July, for a fourth straight month. Cal State Fullerton says its indicator for Southland economic growth was positive last month for the first time in nine quarters.

Economists are also optimistic about California's long-term prospects in areas such as green technology, medical research and international trade. In the short term, however, its rebound could lag behind the national recovery.

The state's unemployment rate reached 11.9% in July, well above the national rate of 9.4%. Joblessness in California will continue to rise through the end of 2009, peaking in the fourth quarter at 12.2%, according to UCLA economists, who predict that job growth won't resume until late 2010.

The state's budget woes also will be a major drag. California is spending less on healthcare, education and prisons. It's cutting jobs and furloughing workers. That means less money to stimulate the economy.

The state's recovery will also be hindered by its historic reliance on the housing industry, which created tens of thousands of jobs in construction and financial services during the boom. Now many of those positions have vanished...

Southern California home sales were up 11% in August from a year earlier, while median prices rose for the fourth straight month to $275,000, up from a bottom of $247,000 in April, according to figures released by MDA DataQuick. Housing prices are unlikely to take another big tumble, Comerica economist Dana Johnson said. "The housing sector seems to have made the huge adjustment it needed to make," he said. "It doesn't look like there's terrible further adjustments to follow."

Builders are working through their inventories of unsold homes, which means they'll soon have to start building again, said Nancy Sidhu, chief economist for the L.A. County Economic Development Corp.

Still, a surge in foreclosures could hamper the state's housing recovery. In July, about 1 in 10 Californians with a home loan was in default, according to First American CoreLogic. It's another reason economists predict the state's comeback won't be a quick one...

The long-term prognosis for California, however, is optimistic, said Nickelsburg of the Anderson Forecast. The state will benefit from federal stimulus money now being channeled into research in medical innovation and green technology. Beyond 2010, Nickelsburg said, California could grow faster than the rest of the country.

Fledgling industries such as battery technology, wind power and the computerization of medical records could propel new growth in the state, said Levy of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy.

California already leads the nation in patent registration for green technology, according to Next 10, a nonprofit research group in Palo Alto. And it attracted a record investment in renewable energy and clean technology last year, despite the state's deep downturn.

Throughout the recession, the health and education sectors have been immune to widespread job losses, and those sectors will probably continue to generate growth, economists said.

As people reach retirement age, they'll be drawn to the weather and lifestyle of California, coming here for healthcare, said economist Sung Won Sohn of Cal State Channel Islands in Camarillo.

"Dr. Doom" Roubini sees some light at the end of the tunnel

Dr. Nouriel Roubini, long a housing bear, actually may be seeing some glimmer of hope for the economy and a rebound. From his column at Forbes.com:

As I have argued before, the risk of an L-shaped near-depression will be significantly reduced if aggressive policy actions were undertaken. That risk of near-depression is now lower than it was three months ago--but not gone altogether--as policy makers in the U.S. and globally have finally gotten religion and taken out all their policy bazookas, missiles, rockets and artillery and started to use them...

These policies will not restore positive growth in advanced economies until next year, but will reduce the rate of economic contraction to a more moderate pace by the end of 2009. Thus, as I noted earlier, the rate of the advanced economies' economic contraction will slow down from the peak contraction of this year's first quarter (-6%) to a more modest contraction in the fourth quarter (-2%) and a very weak positive growth (0% to 1% in U.S., Europe and Japan) in 2010 with still sharply rising unemployment rates peaking at 10% in these advanced economies...

So the road ahead is still very, very bumpy. The worst for the degree of economic contraction may be behind us by the second or third quarter of this year, but there will not be any robust and sustained recovery as the damage of the financial and real excesses of the last few years will have lasting effects on actual and potential growth for the U.S. and global economies. And the burden of trillions of dollars of additional fiscal deficits and debts in advanced and emerging economies will be a drag on actual and potential growth for years to come.

But if aggressive policy actions are accelerated after the G-20 meeting in London, one can expect a slow and painful process of mending the U.S. and global economy that will still take a long time. That will, however, allow us to see the light at the end of the tunnel some time next year, first for the real economies, next for financial markets and finally for the financial system and its wounded institutions.

Does that mean he's ready to pop open the champagne?