Forecast: Homebuilding to fall by nearly 50% – but not in Dallas-Fort Worth

U.S. homebuilding will fall by almost 50 percent this year, a new forecast predicts.

But don’t expect such a large decline in home starts in North Texas, analysts with Metrostudy say.

The Houston-based housing research firm anticipates that new home production in the U.S. will decrease by an additional 47 percent in 2009.

“This decline would be in addition to the 33 percent drop from 2007 to 2008, and is steeper than many other housing economists have predicted,” Brad Hunter, Metrostudy’s chief economist said in the new report. “Some forecasts have been unrealistically high.”

The Dallas-Fort Worth area has already seen a 46 percent drop in single-family home starts between 2006 and 2008.

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