(Reuters) — A plunge in U.S. homebuilder confidence reported on
Tuesday reflects a range of problems facing the construction
industry seven years after the housing crash, challenges that go
deeper than the severe winter weather blamed for much of the gloom.
The National Association of Home Builders said on Tuesday that
builder confidence dropped 10 points between January and February,
from 56 to 46, the largest drop since the survey began in 1985.
Readings below 50 mean more builders view market conditions as poor
than favorable.
But economists, analysts and builders say the decline in confidence
is deep-seated and has lingered due to the widespread destruction
suffered by the construction sector when the housing market
collapsed. The industry faces a chronic shortage of laborers,
difficulty in obtaining credit and a skittishness among developers
to invest in new sites. (Reuters Insider: http://reut.rs/1gAYKfd)
The online real estate data firm Trulia analyzed weather and housing
data for the past decade and estimated that severe winters have
contributed at most a 2 percent downturn toward construction
activity in recent years.
The housing crash has left in its wake a glut of vacant existing
homes in many cities that has done more than the weather to dampen
new home construction, experts say.
Jed Kolko, Trulia's chief economist, said because cities such as Las
Vegas, Miami and Phoenix still have many vacant homes, those
existing houses — rather than the weather — have been one of the
biggest drags on the construction of new single-family homes, which
account for roughly two-thirds of the U.S. housing market.
Madeline Schnapp, director of economic research at the data firm
PropertyRadar, said the construction sector was "obliterated" after
the housing crash, which contributed to the 2008 financial collapse.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the 8.2 million
jobs lost during the Great Recession, 2.3 million were in
construction.
As a result, Schnapp says, the building industry is still several
years away from attracting back the skilled labor force it needs to
build new homes.
Jeff Dworkin, who runs a home building business in Dallas, Texas,
said demand for new homes was rising, but was still a long way from
the heady days before the crash. He doubted that sort of demand will
ever return.
"And we have a problem. The average age of a mason in Texas is over
60," Dworkin said. "So we have a shortage of masons, framers and
painters. I know contractors who used to be able to hire them for
$100 a day. Now it's $150."
Another factor hindering builders is the number of U.S. homeowners
still underwater on their mortgages, which stops them from looking
for new places to live, Schnapp said.
According to the housing tracking firm CoreLogic, 13 percent of U.S.
homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
In California, 20 percent of homeowners are still saddled with
negative equity.
Robert Denk, senior economist at the National Association of Home
Builders, said builders — like many potential buyers — are also
struggling to get loans, as banks' lending standards have tightened.
(Reporting by Tim Reid in Los Angeles;
edited by Ronald Grover and Lisa Shumaker)
