July 2, 2008

Homebuilding Industry Groups: We are Screwed

On March 30, my fellow blogger David Gordon was posting about a series of bizarre ads the National Association of Realtors was running about what a great time it is to buy a house. The timing seemed, at the least, unfortunate and at the worst, misleading.

Over on the Square Feet blog, Sue McAllister commented Thursday about the naked, indeed bleeding, honesty of various industry spokesmen and associations at a homebuilding trade show in San Francisco’s Moscone Center the day before.

“We have laid off 60 percent of our workforce; it’s been absolutely devastating.” said the chief executive of national homebuilder Pulte Homes. “There’s no question the industry is in dire shape,” said the head of the California Building Industry Association.

Now, that’s the kind of truth-telling that gives an organization credibility. If they’re gonna be this brutal about the raw shape things are in, I’ll believe them when they start saying we’ve reached the bottom, or things are getting better, or whatever.

And by God, John Burns of the CBIA did have a note of hope. One slide from his presentation: “The day is coming when you will make a lot of $$$ again.” Anybody got a guess as to when? (Photo: aussiegall)