More bad signs in the housing market

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Scott Jagow: The housing market is definitely in a blue period. Today, the country’s second-largest home builder said this blue period could be longer and bluer than we thought.

Lennar Corporation said it lost money last quarter. It’s gonna lose money this quarter, and the company believes things could get worse before they get better.

Economist Christopher Mayer from Columbia University tends to agree.

Christopher Mayer: I think there are a set of markets in the country that are really going to be on a significant slide for quite awhile. Markets like Miami, Phoenix, Las Vegas are markets which have just seen a huge amount of new construction which has exceeded demand.

The government also piled onto the housing market’s troubles today. It said new home sales fell 1.6 percent in May.