I have been brooding on and on the state of U.S. housing market. We saw stellar performances during year 2005, but estimations for year 2006 have been slightly less enthusiastic. We haven’t gotten to far into year 2006 and already some alarming sings are sprouting up. KB Home informs us that their orders are down and cancellations are up. This is tough situation for any company. It is not as bad as is sound though, because KB Home has massive backlog of orders that will carry it thorough most part of the year, but it remains to be seen what happens on the second half of the year.
Jan 062010
I just noticed that National Association of Home Builders had predicted coming slowdown on the housing market back in November. They comprise Housing Market Index, which showed that builders are getting bit cautious about new housing starts. Backlogs should carry industry well to this year. Analysts say that this could mean just a slight drop in total sales.
Seems like we have controlled cooling instead of dramatic crash. This bodes well for log home and log cabin owners as our choice of housing has certain image that will attract buyers, sellers and builders even on slower times. Market crash would hurt us too, but I am confident that log homes retain their value better than normal housing and mere slowdown still keeps us rather well-off.