Can't Say This Fills Me With a Lot of Confidence

Don't try this explanation next time a client asks you to justify your cost estimate for remodeling their kitchen. From Forbes:

"In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.
"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number." "

August Existing Home Sales Down 11%

Existing home sales in August dipped 10.7% from the same month last year to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 4.91 million units, according to the most recent figures from the National Association of Realtors. Single family home sales dipped 9.6% to a 4.35 million-unit pace.
Through the first eight months of 2008, almost 3.38 million homes have been sold, down 17.1% from the same period of 2007.
Median sales price for an existing home in August was $203,100, down 9.5% from the same month last year. At current sales rates, there is an existing inventory of 10.4 months' worth of unsold homes, up 8.3% from the same period last year.

Choosing Not to Participate

The proposed Fed bailout for the mortgage industry will be covered better elsewhere. But I do want to call the reader's attention to a peculiar paragraph in the Wall Street Journal's coverage:

"Mr. Paulson is resisting efforts to limit the pay of executives whose
firms participate in the program and plans to fight it "hard," according to a
person familiar with the matter. He fears that provision would render the
program moot, since many firms might choose not to participate."

Really? I mean, really?

Home Theatre Market to Hit $3 billion in 2013

A report (with an apparently incorrect headline) from echannel finds 7% annual growth in home theatre products and services.

Aaaargh!

Today be a great day to make your co-workers think you've lost your mind, mateys.

August Single Family Starts Dip 35%

Single family housing starts hit their lowest pace since January of 1991, down 34.9% from the same month last year to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 630,000 units, according to the Census Bureau. Overall starts dipped 33.1% from August, 2007, to a 895,000-unit rate.
The declines should help correct the large inventory of unsold homes.
Through August, some 681,200 homes have been started, down 30.5% from the same period last year.
Building permits dipped 36.4% to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 854,000 homes.

Nearly Half of Dealer Showroom Designs Are now 'Green'

Almost half of the displays at the average kitchen and bath dealer now feature sustainable products and design principles. That’s according to a recent survey of dealers throughout the U.S. and Canada conducted by the NKBA.
Nearly 95% of those dealers responding have a showroom, averaging 8.5 kitchen and bath displays and vignettes, of which about 4 feature sustainable design and products. More than half of respondents have changed their displays or vignettes to show sustainable products and principles in the past 12 months, and 68% plan to change or add “green” displays in the next 12 months.
About six out of ten dealers say their promotional literature mentions sustainable design principles and products, and 45% advertise or promote it to their local market.
Seven out of ten dealers have instituted sustainable business practices at their dealerships. Eighty one percent use recycled paper, and 80% have cut down on paper use with e-documents. Seventy-three percent have cut back on energy use for air conditioning and heating, and 68% have switched to energy-saving lighting.
Three out of four dealers recycle some or all of what they tear out when installing a new kitchen job, with 29% recycling almost all, and 4% recycling all.

Fed Bails Out AIG; WaMu Next?

The Federal Reserve has bailed out American International Group (AIG) and now owns nearly 80% of the ailing insurance giant.
And the AP says the Feds are currently trying to organize a buyout of Washington Mutual, which has been among the lenders hardest-hit by the mortgage crisis.
The Financial Times notes that AIG paid its chief executive about $61 million when it fired him earlier this year, after he had lost them more than $30 billion.

August Kitchen Appliance Shipments Dip 8%

Some 3.3 million kitchen appliances were shipped in August, down 8.0% from the same month in 2007, according to the most recent figures from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.
Through the first eight months of this year, nearly 26.5 million kitchen appliances have been shipped, down 8.9% from the same period last year.

Focus on What Matters

Good advice from Seth Godin.

37% of Dealer Kitchen Jobs Are 'Green'

About 37% of the kitchen jobs sold by kitchen and bath dealers in the past 12 months have had ecologically responsible features in them, according to a recent survey of dealers throughout the U.S. and Canada conducted by the NKBA. More than 150 dealers responded.
Some 13% of dealers say all of the jobs they’ve sold in that span are ecologically responsible, while 9% say none have been. Among bath jobs, 35% on the average have been “green.” Nearly 13% have done nothing but ecologically responsible bath jobs, while 14% have done none over the past 12 months.
More than half of the dealers responding say the price of their sustainable kitchen jobs is somewhat higher in price than non-sustainable ones. About 22% say there is no difference, while one in ten says the price for sustainable bath jobs is much higher. Fifty-three percent also say sustainable bath jobs are somewhat higher priced; 24% say there is no price difference, while 9% say the price is much higher.
Nearly two out of three dealers say they’ve encountered sales resistance among clients due to higher prices for sustainable products, but only 36% feel they’ve lost sales due to that factor. Forty-seven percent feel their ability to offer sustainable kitchen and bath designs and products has gained them sales.

Fed Bails Out Mortgage Agencies

From Bloomberg:

"The U.S. Treasury's takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is aimed at
keeping the companies going into 2009, while leaving the next president and
Congress to decide their long-term structure.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart yesterday placed the two firms in a
government-operated conservatorship, ousting their chief executives and
eliminating their dividends. The Treasury may purchase up to $200 billion of
stock in the firms to keep them solvent.
``Some of this is a stopgap to try
to prevent the mortgage market from falling apart,'' former Federal Reserve Bank
of St. Louis President William Poole said on Bloomberg Radio. The federally
chartered, shareholder-owned structure, with risks covered by taxpayers, is ``an
unacceptable situation,'' he said, projecting the Treasury may need to cover as
much as $300 billion of losses. "