Houses Aren’t Selling, and It’s the Media’s Fault

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Maybe I’m too sensitive, but that’s the way I read this comment today from homebuilder Hovnanian Enterprises: ‘The adverse publicity surrounding the the subprime market has further damaged home buyers’ psychology, resulting in decreased demand and leading to continued use of sales incentives,’ Hovnanian said.

On further review, it sounds like some houses ARE selling -- but only because of generous sales incentives, like free kitchen upgrades. So if I read this correctly, the news media’s drumbeat of negativity is delivering free Sub-Zero fridges and granite counter-tops to new homes across the country. You are welcome.

More, from From Ben Jones’ Housing Bubble Blog: “Hovnanian said today it will have a pretax expense of as much as $20 million to cut the value of its property and walk away from deposits on parcels of land it doesn’t plan to buy. The company delivered 30 percent fewer homes last quarter than a year ago and saw ‘exceptionally high cancellations’ in the Fort Myers-Cape Coral area of Florida.”