Freddie Mac survey: Reversing trend, mortgage rates shoot up

NAHB: Weak new home sales show urgent need for financial rescue planMortgagePress.comNational Association of Home Builders, bailout, housing market, NAHB, Commerce Department In the latest evidence of severe and ongoing weakness in the housing and financial markets, the Commerce Department has reported that sales of newly built single-family homes fell 11.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 460,000 units in August. This is 34.5 percent below the August 2007 rate of a year earlier and the lowest level since January of 1991. "This report is yet another example of how the housing sector is suffering the effects of the financial meltdown and extreme tightening of consumer and business credit," Sandy Dunn, president of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Point Pleasant, W. Va., said while attending the association's board of directors meeting in San Diego. "Now is the time for Congress to come together in a bipartisan fashion to pass a financial rescue plan that stabilizes financial markets and gets at the root problems of declining home values and rising foreclosures. This legislation will help shore up home values and unfreeze credit lines, two moves that are absolutely essential to get the economy moving again," Dunn added. "The major downshift in new-home sales in August reflected a weakening economy and job market as well as tight mortgage credit market conditions," said NAHB Chief Economist Dave Seiders. "And this occurred well before the most recent round of financial market turmoil, accentuating the urgent need for immediate action on the Administrations financial rescue plan." For more information, visit www.nahb.com.