Dive Brief:
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Despite positive gains in contracts and profits among big homebuilders in January, lending for home construction slowed down in the final quarter of 2014, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
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Outstanding loans for residential construction backed by the FDIC grew by 2.3% last quarter, less than the 3.8% gain posed in the third quarter and the 5.3% uptick in the second quarter. Those numbers are for single-family homes and buildings of up to four units.
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Total outstanding loans for residential and commercial building increased by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, the report said.
Dive Insight:
The numbers point to a “restrained” housing recovery, according to an analysis in The Wall Street Journal. “We’ll need to see additional lending going forward to support the growth in single-family construction that we expect in 2015,” Robert Dietz, an economist with the National Association of Home Builders, told the paper.
Still, Dietz told The Journal that a year-end slowdown isn’t unusual, and pointed out that total outstanding residential construction loans are up 17% from a year ago.
