ForConstructionPros.com

HOUSING FORECAST

'Market correction' will continue into '07

The housing market will continue to slow through 2007, but the slowdown is necessary to make up for 2004 and 2005's unsustainable growth, and is still near record highs.

That was the consensus of a panel of economists gathered by the National Association of Home Builders in late September.

"It should bottom out by the middle of next year and we expect a healthy trend for sales by 2008," said NAHB chief economist David Seiders. "The long-term trends for housing are excellent."

The housing market is still solid, with this year's levels of sales and starts about even with 2003, making it the third or fourth best year on record.

"Most of what we are reading in the financial pages is an overexaggeration of problems in the market," said Mike Moran, chief economist for Daiwa Securities America, Inc. "There's this idea out there that this is a catastrophe and that's not at all the case.