U.K. home builders also see difficulty

Home builders in the United States aren't the only ones seeing difficulty in the current economy. U.K. home builders have reported job cuts in the past week after housing sales have fallen off in that country.

Home builder Persimmon has said it will have cut 1,100 jobs by the end of the year because of the downturn in the housing market. The company characterized the past six months as "the most challenging period" in the company's history.

"Due to the likelihood of the poorer market conditions continuing we have taken further steps to restructure our business and reduce overhead to a level which is more appropriate to our medium-term expectations of annual new home sales volumes," the company said.

U.K. home builder Taylor Wimpey also said this week it would cut 900 jobs because of weakness in housing in the country. Today, a further U.K. home builder, Barratt Developments, said it would cut 1,200 jobs and also cut its dividend to shareholders because of the weakness in the housing market.