I hope my Foolish friends didn't participate in last week's expensive lesson that the housing market provided. Indeed, a silly itch to find the precise bottom to housing's sharp slide led more than a few investors to glom onto a comment by Toll Brothers'
Toll's comment about a "pent-up demand" for housing has since been washed away by all manner of subsequent negative news for housing. That bad news includes today's Commerce Department release of July housing-start numbers, which, at 1.38 million units, came in 20.9% lower than the rate in July 2006. And permits, which serve as something of a measure of builders' confidence levels, were down 2.8% in July.
As if those numbers weren't enough, we also got news today that Countrywide Financial
Further, Atlanta-based builder Beazer Homes
By now, the deluge of negative news from the housing sector has washed away all of Beazer's Nonsense Day share-price increase, along with those of such other major builders as Centex
For related Foolishness:
- Battered Builders Falling Faster
- Homebuilders: Bargains or Value Traps?
- Homebuilders' Sagging Spirits
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Fool contributor David Lee Smith doesn't own shares in any of the companies mentioned. He welcomes your emails. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.