HOMEBUILDERS NOT DEAD, AFTER ALL

Fortune: the recovery in homebuilding has legs.

. . . There’s a looming shortage of new homes in the U.S., and construction will have to ramp up. Homebuilders slashed production in recent years as demand withered. Now, says Ivy Zelman, CEO of Zelman & Associates, “new-home inventory is at record lows any way you look at it.” Over the years, new properties have represented 0.3% of total U.S. households, she says; today that figure is 0.1%. Census figures show that just 475,000 new homes were completed annually over the past three years, down from a long-term yearly average of 1.1 million. [Emph. added]

And don’t forget about pent-up household formation. . . .