30 Year Low for Home Sales

Barrats Shares Slide Along with Home Sales

Home Sales Slump

If you are wondering if the housing market is bad check out the full horror in this 10-year chart for Barratts Home Development - it looks as bad as, if not worse than the dotcom bubble and bust - from 1300p down to 120p i.e. a 90% loss in just over a year !

10-Year Chart

Full story here : http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jun/10/barrattdevelopmentsbusiness.construction?gusrc=rss&feed=business

The volume of home sales has fallen to its lowest level for 30 years.

Analysts expect further large asset write-downs from housebuilders due to the falling value of their land assets.

There is speculation that like the banks many housebuilders will be forced into emergency rights issues.

Barratt which has around $3.5 bn debt was the biggest faller in the FTSE 250 yesterday, slumping 20p or 14% to 121p. The CEO bought shares at 441p in December, so no doubt he is suffering like everyone else (not).

Ever wondered how many houses an estate agent sells in 3 months ? Wll according to the RICS it is 17.4 at the moment (about 1.5 a week), the lowest level since 1978, which shows how bad it is as it is even lower than during the slump in 1989.

Barratt denies it is in trouble. It said in May that it had dealt with its short-term borrowing of about £800m.