KB Home CEO: Current Downturn Worse Than 1990s Housing Market Bust
From Fortune:
"I don't think the macro statistics reflect accurately what's going on in many local markets," says Bruce Karatz, CEO of national home-builder KB Home. In many once-hot regions, order cancellation rates are running above 40 percent, new-home sales volume has dropped 50 percent, and new-home prices are down 10 percent to 25 percent. Karatz says the current downturn is worse than any he has seen - even the early 1990s market that left so many big builders reeling.
6 comments:
What?
Wait?
The Sac Bee and Jim Wasserman said all the big residential builders were "bullish" on Sacramento!
Oh, they meant in 2030....
sorry!
Big Bull KB Home turns into a Bear.
He had the Jim Jones Kool Aid to his lips and then threw it down or he drank it and these are his dying words.
Wow...finally an honest voice!
so a homebulder exec states the obvious & its news. wowee !
amazing how the back slapping frat brothers get the CEO jobs while the real talent labors in the trenches for years just praying for a shot at the brass ring.
until corp. boards wake up & replace the company figureheads with go getters,( like Ford )
asia will continue to eat ourlunch.
me, I'm learning japanese I really think so . . .
The ever mighty consumer is starting to hold onto their wallets. Could it be the weight of their credit romp is finally starting to take a real toll on their ability to spend us out of a coming recession? All the numbers are starting to show that a soft landing the talking heads are wishing for may not be so soft afterall. Real estate was the backbone of the economic boom over the last 6 years. Without it we go sideways at best.
Yes they'll drink their kool aid now, take the losses in 2006, write down the overpaid land if they can now, so they can make their bonuses next year.
Since you mentioned Ford, did you notice that they didn't discount SUVs 50%, they just stopped making them when they became unprofitable.
Likewise, these builders will stop building unprofitable homes. And yes they are all mixing in more multifamly, hi-rise, like our Japanese friends.
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