housing

The Commerce Department said starts fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 604,000 from a downwardly revised 613,000 rate in June.

In July, housing starts slipped 1.5%, according to data released Tuesday that reveal the negative impact on demand for new houses that comes from cheaper foreclosed homes, underwater mortgages, tight lending standards and high une

Economists had expected 547,000 starts in the month. April's housing starts were revised up to 541,000 from 523,000.

Starts of single-family homes rose 3.7% to 419,000, while starts of multi-family homes increased 8.9% to 134,000.

Starts rose in the South and West, but fell in the Midwest and Northeast.

Housing starts in May increased 3.5% from April's upwardly revised numbers, to a seasonally adjusted rate of 560,000.

One of America's premier home-builders, KB Home (NYSE:KBH), reported a Q1 loss today of $1.49 per share, a much wider loss than the expected $0.27 per share.

Credit Suisse has revised down its U.S. GDP forecasts for the first half of 2011. The firm now expects 2.5% real GDP growth in Q1, down from its previous forecast of 3.5%. Its Q2 forecast was also revised down to 3.3% from 3.7%. H

The current downtrend began in August 2010, after the federal homebuyer tax credit expired in the spring.

U.S. home prices declined in January, falling to a level equal with the summer of 2003, according to the S&P Case-Shiller indexes. The index showed prices fell 1% in the month, after rising 2.38% in December.

New-home sales were revised higher to 301,000 from 284,000 in January.

Every region but the West saw record lows, and sales dropped by 50% in the Northeast.

The Commerce Department reported sales of new single-family homes collapsed in February. New-home sales fell 16.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 250,000.

The bond insurer also reported an adjusted pre-tax loss of $311 million in the latest quarter, versus an adjusted pre-tax loss of $541 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.

MBIA Inc.

MBIA Inc. (NYSE:MBI) reported net income available to common shareholders of $451 million, or $2.24 per share, which may not be comparable with the consensus estimate for a loss of $0.27 per share. Adjusted Book Value was recorded