Major economic activity was stimulated by the March 11 earthquake and and tsunami that devastated parts of Fukushima Prefecture. The Japan Times reports that imports of water and cigarettes surged to several times normal levels, for example. Temporary housing construction is also booming, but falling short of the production rate desired by the government. The Japan Times says the goal of 30,000 temporary units by the end of May will not be achieved, according to the infrastructure minister. more »

Some people are making a big mistake. The error? Playing roulette with home ownership and buying one home with a mortgage before thay have sold the previous home, which also has a mortgage is always a gamble. In the current real estate markets in many parts of the country it can be a long odds bet. In a strong housing market the bet has much shorter odds of going bad. But the nation has many more weak markets than strong markets today. more »

 Econintersect:  Home values in the United States fell faster in the first quarter of 2011 than they have in any quarter since 2008, when the housing market experienced its worst performance, according to Zillow's first quarter Real Estate Market Reports… more »

Another housing market tracking index is showing a double dip. Clear Capital’s HCI (Home Data Index) has dipped below the previous cycle low of March 2009. This joins other housing market tracking services in reaching a new low. Both CoreLogic and the NAR (National Association of Realtors) showed new lows for home sales median prices last month, as reviewed by Steven Hansen at GEI Analysis. The widely followed S&P / Case-Shiller Home Price Indices have not yet quite reached the double dip level, but that data is 1-2 months older than the others. The latest Case-Shiller data has been reported only through February, whereas the others are all at least through March. Clear Capital is the first to report April data. more »

In the twelve months ended March, 2010 only 357,000 new households were formed (net number). This was a record low for the history of the U.S. Census data base, which goes back to 1968. The number is also nearly a million short of the ten-year average of 1.3 million net new households per year. As a result of The Great Recession, by the end of March, 2010 there was a cummulative deficiency of 2.3 million net new households from the recession. That implies a normal net new household formation rate without effects of The Great Recession would have been over 1.5 million per year. more »