• Posted on Friday, January 9, 2009
  • Bookmark and Share
  • email
  • |
  • print
  • |
  • rss

tool name

close
tool goes here

Home builders suffer in grim '08

Sign up for email newsletters now!

Sign up for email newsletters now!

 Never miss a McClatchy story
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Facebook
Add us to your Droid or iPhone
By Jim Wasserman | Sacramento Bee

Could it get any worse for Sacramento's home builders?

Publicly traded home-building giants and family builders alike endured their harshest year in possibly a generation in 2008, according to statistics being released today by the Folsom-based Gregory Group.

Area home builders sold just 4,695 houses last year in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties as an historic real estate collapse diverted thousands of buyers to steeply discounted bank repos, the report shows.

The survey provides the newest evidence of how banks, desperate to unload their foreclosed properties, have pushed area builders to the sidelines and into grim battles for their own survival. Several builders filed for bankruptcy protection as repos climbed to two-thirds of Sacramento County sales, and the median sales price fell to $175,000.

"There's a lot of good-quality bank-repossessed properties, good, clean homes that would be in direct competition with the builders," said Warren Adams of Security Pacific Real Estate in Fair Oaks. Many are nearly new, he said. "I've had several listings where they're still selling the models in there."

Read the complete story at sacbee.com

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

We welcome comments. To post one, you must sign in using either your McClatchyDC login or your login for Facebook, Twitter or Disqus. Just click the appropriate box below.

Please keep your comment civil, short and to the point. Obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. If you find a comment abusive or inappropriate, please flag it for the moderator by placing your cursor on the comment, then clicking the "flag" link that appears. Thanks for your participation.

ECONOMY IN TURMOIL

economy in turmoil

Read McClatchy coverage of the economic pain Americans around the country are feeling, from Florida to California to Alaska.

ECONOMY QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

hall & pugh

McClatchy correspondents Kevin G. Hall (left) and Tony Pugh are available to answer your questions about the economic meltdown at home and abroad, and what's in store for ordinary Americans.

Q&A: THE HOUSING CRISIS

Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody's Economy.com, is took questions from McClatchy readers about the nation's deep housing crisis. His book, "Financial Shock," offers a 360-degree look at what caused the crisis, what mistakes were made and who made them. It offers a way forward to prevent future crises.

Q&A: TERMINAL CHAOS

U.S. air travel these days is about as fun as a trip to the dentist. Departure delays are rampant, bags often miss the flight you've caught and rising jet fuel prices have major airlines charging to check a bag. In his new book "Terminal Chaos," George Donohue, a professor and former high-level Federal Aviation Administration official, explains why our system of air travel is broken and what can be done to fix it. Read the responses.

Q&A: THE THREE TRILLION DOLLAR WAR

For two weeks, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard professor Linda Bilmes, authors of "The Three Trillion Dollar War," fielded questions about the cost of the Iraq war and its impact on the U.S. economy. They're not taking new questions, but they're still posting answers to ones they've already received. Read their responses.