NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--After severe winter weather put a damper on U.S. housing metrics to begin 2014, the coming months should fare better for the sector, according to Fitch Ratings.
Winter and early spring housing metrics have underperformed expectations. Poor weather undoubtedly had some impact. But underlying demand seemed to be lackluster. Affordability has diminished somewhat due to higher interest rates and home prices and potential buyers still in the process of psychologically adjusting.
Nonetheless, housing metrics should increase for 2014 due to faster economic growth, and some acceleration in job growth. This despite somewhat higher interest rates and more measured home price inflation ahead. The larger public builders will continue to be advantaged in accessing capital markets, acquiring land and exploiting the on-going cyclical housing expansion. Fitch will be discussing this and other market and competitive trends during its quarterly housing and homebuilder conference call, to take place today at 1 PM ET.
The focus of the conference call will be to discuss fourth quarter 2013 (4Q'13) and more recent housing data, as well as Fitch's outlook for the U.S. housing sector and public homebuilders. Managing Director and lead Homebuilding Analyst Robert Curran will be the call leader and provide insights about the outlook for the 1Q'14 and the remainder of the year, as well as give a brief sector recap for 4Q'13. Both Curran and Robert Rulla will answer questions after the formal presentation
Following are details of the teleconference:
--Date: Wednesday, April 23;
--Time: 1:00 p.m. ET;
--Conference ID: 31162136;
--U.S/Canada: +1-877-467-8597;
--International: +1-706-902-0405;
--Call Leader: Robert Curran.
Replay information:
--Replay Dates: April 23, 2014 @ 4:00 PM ET - May 23, 2014 @ 11:59 PM ET
--U.S./Canada: +1-855-859-2056
--International: +1-404-537-3406
--Replay ID: 31162136
The conference call follows the release of Fitch's 'U.S. Homebuilding: The Chalk Line - Quarterly Update: Spring 2014', which is available at 'www.fitchratings.com' or by clicking on the link at the end of the press release.
Additional information is available at 'www.fitchratings.com'
Applicable Criteria and Related Research:
U.S. Homebuilding/Construction: The Chalk Line (Spring 2014)
http://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=742916
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