Source: CNN Business —
Mortgage rates are soaring. And for many prospective home buyers, especially first-time purchasers, the combination of rising home loan costs and still sky-high real estate prices make the idea of purchasing a home prohibitively expensive…if not impossible.
But don’t tell that to the CEO of real estate developer Howard Hughes Corp. In an interview with CNN Business, David O’Reilly said that he’s not too worried about another housing market crash and explains why.
“We probably are technically in a housing recession,” he said, referring to a term used to describe a decline in home sales for at least six months. “We are clearly in a downturn, but this is much different.”
O’Reilly said that in the years leading up to the 2008 collapses of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual and others, there was a glut of new homes that had been built.
“We had a massive oversupply when Lehman hit the wall,” he said. “But housing starts now have significantly trailed formations.”
