The Results Are In...Worst Year on Record for Home Construction; Where Do We Go From Here? And When?

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LEN Hot Sheet

Rating Summary:
7 Buy, 8 Hold, 1 Sell

Rating Trend:

Up

Today's Overall Ratings:
Up: 14 | Down: 6 | New: 17

The results are in...and the worst year for single-family home construction has finally concluded. Housing starts for the month of December totaled 657,000, which compares to the Street estimate of 680,000. Housing starts in November totaled 685,000. The metric was down 4.1% from November.

Because the pile of existing homes on the market isn't dwindling fast enough, and with reports of the next wave of foreclosures coming to market mid-2012, there was little reason for builders to boost production in residential construction.

A Wells Fargo analyst recently said he expects prices to drop another 5-6%, but sees a bottom in 2012...then a gradual pick-up from there.

Home construction stocks include: Lennar (NYSE: LEN), Pulte (NYSE: PHM), Toll Bros. (NYSE: TOL), Beazer (NYSE: BZH), Hovnanian (NYSE: HOV), D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) and KB Home (NYSE: KBH)

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