The housing market decline is near the bottom, Weyerhaeuser chief executive Dan Fuller said at the timber giant’s recent annual meeting.
Although he acknowledged that the market was still declining slowly, he said: “I do feel that we are approaching the bottom. We’re not there yet, because the total number of housing starts were down in March and single-family starts were flat.”
He predicted that the market for new homes would level out this year and begin returning to normal in 2010.
Housing costs are in many cases at between 20 and 30-year lows, said Mr Fuller, adding that, with the dramatic decline in house prices, it was a prime buying opportunity, but buyers were still hesitating.
“The reason that people have not been buying homes is not so much price,” said Mr Fuller. “For the last three or four months, it’s been the fear of unemployment, causing discretionary buyers to move to the sidelines.
“If employment starts to stabilise, I think you’ll start to see some movement in the market. I expect a modest recovery in 2010 and the market picking up steam in 2011.”
