For months, real estate experts and pundits have been debating the possibility that the frenzied national housing market may be cooling off. This week saw further evidence that the bubble may be deflating, as luxury home builders Toll Brothers reported it would see lower home sales forecasts through 2006.
The Huntingdon Valley, PA-based residential home construction company reported much higher profits from sales for 2005 than it did for 2004, and a 50 percent increase of revenue in the last year.
CEO Robert Toll attributed the market slowdown to high gas prices and consumer fears, saying that "the true speculator is gone from the market."
The Toll Brothers' forecast added more fuel to fiery discussions of the housing market's decline, stoked by the announcement of 30-year fixed mortgage rates rising to 6.36 percent, their highest level since September 2003.
November 11, 2005
The Fading Housing Frenzy
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Found the following on cnbc web site. Peter McCoy wrote:
"Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee," John Donne famously wrote. Now the housing industry will see whether the Toll Brothers bell rings true.
-- Peter McCoy
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