Home Builders Association of Chester and Delaware Counties

HBA Newswatch

May 27, 2008

HOME SALES POST UNEXPECTED APRIL INCREASE
WASHINGTON (AP) --- Sales of new homes rose in April for the first time in six months although the unexpected increase still left activity near the lowest level in 17 years.
The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that sales of new homes rose 3.3 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000 units.
But the government revised March activity lower to show an even bigger drop of 11 percent to an annual rate of 509,000, which was the weakest pace for sales since April 1991. Economists believe that new home sales will remain weak for some time as the housing industry struggles with falling prices and rising mortgage foreclosures, which are dumping even more homes on an already glutted market.
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PREIT, TARGET CAN GET DOWN TO BUSINESS
By Susan L. Serbin
The owners of Springfield Mall are likely not to waste any time in starting work on a major revitalization project following commissioners' approval of the final plan, May 13. After more than two years since the project was first proposed, Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) in cooperation with Target will do a mall makeover to attract and retain customers in a competitive and challenging retail market. Project attorney Joseph Damico briefly summarized the plan. There are two reverse subdivisions: the 5.3-acre parcel on the northwest corner will remain open space, and the existing building on 1.3 acres on Sproul Road will be replaced with a free standing bank. The Baltimore Pike main mall entrance will be recreated with an increase of about 45,000-square feet of expansion for restaurants and retail.
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GEOTHERMAL FANBASE RISES
ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY TECHNIQUE AS OLD AS ANCIENT GREECE USES THE EARTH’S HEAT TO COOL AND WARM A BUILDING WITH A RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN LESS THAN 10 YEARS
By BRIAN McCULLOUGH, Staff Writer
Bruce Durnan refers to himself as “the guinea pig” of his Estates at Broad Run neighborhood.
Only three years into his 4,000-square-foot home in the upscale West Bradford neighborhood, Durnan said he has tired of the ever-escalating cost of propane he buys to heat and cool his house. He is having a geoexchange system installed, a move that will cost him more than having a traditional oil or natural gas unit put in, but one he’s confident will save him money in the long run.
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WHY TRUTH ON HOUSING IS DIFFICULT TO FIGURE
Data from many sources are measured in different ways
By Al Heavens
When Christopher J. Artur was president of the Realtors Association of Greater Philadelphia during the housing-market downturn of the mid-1990s, many of his colleagues urged him not to publicize sales and price data.
"I argued successfully that, if we didn't give out that information in bad times, how would anyone believe us in good times?" Artur said.
Today, even though such data are available from numerous sources, the truth about the state of the housing market is an elusive quarry.
For example, two major collectors of housing statistics - the National Association of Realtors and Standard & Poor's - acknowledged recently that the data they have gathered might be overstating price declines.
Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors group, said the first-quarter median-price declines it reported were linked to a drop in jumbo loans and a resulting increase in the sales of lower-priced homes.
David Blitzer of Standard & Poor's, which produces the three Case-Shiller Indexes, told the financial Web site Marketwatch.com that its monthly index painted "an incomplete picture" of home values.
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