New Home Construction May not Recover Until 2011

From Bloomberg this morning.

. . . New home construction in the U.S. may take until 2011 to return to last year's level, said David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders in Washington. Monthly construction starts would need to jump by 21 percent to reach Seiders's benchmark for full recovery, which is 1.85 million . . .

The inventory of unsold homes is the largest since the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors started counting them in 1999 and house prices have suffered the steepest drop since the Great Depression, according to the realtors' group. . . .

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell in April to the lowest level in almost four years, the National Association of Realtors said last week.