New Home Builders Keep Building, Despite a Rocky Time

Last week's news that sales of new homes dropped precipitously in May, combined with earnings statements that same week, propelled CEOs at top building firms to talk about what they see happening in the housing market as we head into the second half of 2010.

Their words were surprisingly optimistic.

New-home sales for May dropped 33 percent; that's the worst showing since the Census Bureau started keeping track in 1963, and prompted housing consultant Howard Glaser to tell the New York Times, "I think that builders should bite the bullet and stop building houses."

But that's not what builders do. And while the news was bad, CEOs of some of the largest homebuilders are doing what they can to calm concerns that the housing market is set for another recession. CEOs, analysts and other industry watchers agreed that while the percentage was higher than expected, the drop itself was not a surprise, due to the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit at the end of April.

And they will continue to move forward, doing what they do best, which is buy land and build.