Builders Slump as U.S. Housing Market Shifts to the Slow Lane

  • Stocks are down 21% this year, on track for worst since 2008
  • Housing is stalled on high prices even as the economy grows
Photographer: Gaia Squarci/Bloomberg
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The housing market is stalling, and homebuilder stocks are feeling the pain.

The S&P Supercomposite Homebuilding Index is down 21 percent year-to-date, on track for the biggest annual drop since 2008, when it fell 32 percent. That’s even with tax cuts, unemployment near the lowest since 1969 and a real-estate developer in the White House. What gives?