Dive Brief:
- Tom Showalter, chief analytics officer at DigitalRisk, which serves the mortgage industry, says there are just too many parts not meshing in the U.S. economic engine for the home-building industry to see much gain this year.
- He sees problems with "friction" from lenders, regulators, incomes that are not rising fast enough for potential buyers and buyers wondering if the house they want is correctly priced.
- Fitch Ratings is more optimistic, predicting a 15% gain in single-family construction starts this year and a 9% rise in multifamily starts even after taking into account the lousy start of the year.
Dive Insight:
"Its one of those friction-based arguments rather than a 'catastrophic change'-based arguments," Showalter told HousingWire. He sees too many little things keeping the market from revving up the way builders would like it to.