The coronavirus pandemic wasn't as harmful to US housing as expected given that the industry exceeded expectations for this year's second quarter but it won't fare as well in the remainder of the year and into 2021.

Fitch Ratings Inc. has revised up its projections for most rated homebuilders and building product issuers, increasing the forecast for these companies' revenues and EBITDA, or estimates for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Still, the credit rating agency added it was cautious in its upward revisions basing them mainly on the stronger than expected second-quarter results.

"We forecast housing activity and home improvement spending will weaken during second-half 2020 and into 2021," Fitch reported.

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Lidia Dinkova

Lidia Dinkova covers South Florida real estate for the Daily Business Review. Contact her at [email protected] or 305-347-6665. On Twitter @LidiaDinkova.