| Check out our NEW service - www.REDNRADIO.Com
|
| REDN Internet Radio is where we provide editorial commentary with streaming audio to the Real Estate Daily News. We are just starting the service so your comments are REALLY appreciated. Click the SCHEDULE LINK. Please email Earl J. Niemoth / or, call us back - 941/966-9746. Thanks.
|
|
| Click here for yesterday's / today's market indices
|
|
| Hopes that housing is bouncing back
|
| Single-family construction and permits both rose, a signal that this bigger sector of home construction is starting to stabilize. Construction of single-family homes rose 2.8 percent to an annual rate of 368,000, following a 0.3 percent gain in March and no change in February. Building permits for single-family homes were up 3.6 percent to a rate of 373,000 last month. Still, home builders in Southwest Florida say it will be a long slog before this region emerges from the doldrums, particularly because of the huge volume in distressed properties.
|
| @ Sarasota Herald Tribune | Posted: 05/20/09 at 0201 EDST
|
| New home construction in April fell to its lowest level in decades
|
| The Tampa Bay area reported the lowest ever number of housing starts — 697 — in the first quarter of this year. As of the end of March, the Tampa Bay area had 3,210 new homes sitting vacant, a glut that's stymied new construction.
|
| @ St. Petersburg Times | Posted: 05/20/09 at 0315 EDST
|
| Lakeland Builders Have Slowest Month
|
| In April, Polk County had a total of 68 permits for new home construction, down 73.3 percent from April of the previous year when 255 permits were pulled, according to city and county building departments. April's total was down 33.3 percent from March's total of 102. April's permit total was the lowest since 1993.
|
| @ Lakeland Ledger | Posted: 05/20/09 at 0320 EDST
|
| Southwest Florida homebuilders see a glimmer of hope
|
| all new housing units in Lee and Collier subdivisions shows that quarterly move-ins dropped from 534 units in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 432 in the first quarter of 2009. The annual pace of move-ins declined from 2,890 to 2,310 units. Still, the inventory of unsold new homes dropped from 947 in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 842 at the end of the first quarter. That's because the number of home starts stayed low: 228 in the first quarter.
|
| @ Ft. Myers News Press | Posted: 05/20/09 at 0330 EDST
|
| Privately-owned housing starts in April were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 458,000.
|
| This is 12.8 percent below the revised March estimate of 525,000 and is 54.2 percent below the revised April 2008 rate of 1,001,000.
|
| @ U. S. Department of Commerce | Posted: 05/20/09 at 0400 EDST
|
| Downtown Chicago condo market dismal
|
| More than half of new condo developments in downtown Chicago either had sales canceled or didn't make a sale during the first quarter report. As a result, only 55 units were removed from a crowded marketplace, leaving 1,590 units completed and awaiting a buyer and an additional 2,250 units under construction, unsold and expected to be completed this year.
|
| @ Chicago Tribune | Posted: 05/20/09 at 0345 EDST
|
| Why Government Can't Run a Business
|
| Politicians need headlines. Executives need profits.
|
| @ Wall Street Journal | Posted: 05/20/09 at 0415 EDST
|
| U.S. banks are kept guessing on TARP repayment
|
| The U.S. government is slowly opening the gates as the nation's biggest banks rush to repay federal bailout money, but has not yet made clear how it will decide who gets in first. The government has kept banks guessing on what exactly it will require before allowing repayment of tens of billions of dollars received by banks under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
|
| @ Reuters | Posted: 05/20/09 at 0419 EDST
|
|
|
| Japan's GDP Continues Rapid Decline
|
| Annualized 15.2% Drop Is Steepest in 50 Years, 4th in 4 Quarters
|
| @ Washington Post | Posted: 05/20/09 at 0646 EDST
|
| Despite Energy Reserves, Norway Slips Into Recession
|
| Gross domestic product for Norway, excluding petroleum-related activity, contracted by 1 percent during the first quarter of 2009 from the previous quarter, when it declined 0.8 percent, Statistics Norway, the country’s data agency, said on Tuesday. That met the generally accepted definition of a recession — two consecutive quarters of contractions — for the first time since 1993. The economy of Norway expanded last year by 2.6 percent and by 6.1 percent in 2007.
|
| @ New York Times | Posted: 05/20/09 at 0652 EDST
|
| Mumbai stock market suspended after 17% surge
|
| India's main stock index leapt more than 17 percent yesterday for its biggest single-day gain in almost two decades, after the ruling coalition sealed a decisive election victory that calmed fears of political uncertainty. The rupee soared more than three percent to five-month highs against the dollar, its best one-day rise in more than a decade, and bond yields fell.
|
| @ Royal Gazette Bermuda | Posted: 05/20/09 at 0655 EDST
|
| -30- |
