All these people getting booted from their homes will need apartments to move to.



from Bloomberg:


U.S. Builders Broke Ground on Fewest Houses Since '91 (Update3)

By Courtney Schlisserman

May 16 (Bloomberg) -- Construction of U.S. single-family houses in April dropped to the lowest level in 17 years, even as building of condominiums and townhouses rebounded.

Builders broke ground on 692,000 single-family homes at an annual rate, the fewest since January 1991, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. Total housing starts jumped 8.2 percent to 1.032 million as construction of multifamily units rose 36 percent following a 35 percent drop in March.

``There may be signs that we are getting close to a bottom but we don't think we're there yet,'' said Adam York, an economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina. ``The housing market still has a ways to go towards working off its problems.''

Lower prices and other incentives have yet to revive demand for houses, indicating builders will need to come up with even more discounts to attract buyers. Stricter lending rules, job losses and growing pessimism about the economy signal sales will not rebound quickly.

Treasuries dropped in the minute after the release, before retracing some of the losses later. Yields on benchmark 10-year notes rose to 3.85 percent at 9:56 a.m. in New York, from 3.82 percent late yesterday. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=new...