U.S. Housing Market Could Spring a Leak

[ringmastery]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/bw/20040407/bs_bw/nf20040474797db035

It sure looked like good news: On Apr. 2, the government announced that a stunning 308,000 new jobs were created in March (economists were expecting only about 130,000). For the housing market, however, these tidings hit like a ton of bricks. Almost immediately, interest rates started rising, and housing stocks started falling.

KB Homes fell from $80.20 to $76.60 that day and to $75.27 the next. D.H Horton, Lennar, and Centex all slumped an average of about 7% those two days before rebounding a bit on Apr. 6.

Are these stocks signaling potential weakness ahead for real estate? You bet they are. While housing experts point to myriad reasons why the real estate market will likely stay robust through 2004, the risk of a serious downturn in the next few years is clearly increasing -- particularly in areas of the country where home prices have risen the most.

[NewJeffCT]

1. ouch

we're putting our home on the market next weekend, we hope.

(anybody need a ranch in the Hartford area with a huge master bedroom, 2 additional bedrooms, 2 full baths and lots of post 2000 updates?)