There is no disguising the fact that the past two years have been tortuous for housebuilders in the wake of the credit crunch, the associated banking crisis and the growing recession. The simple figures speak very loudly indeed. Pull together the financial and operational data provided each six months by six of the major mainstream quoted housebuilders and we see immediately the scale and rapidity in the fall of sales and, more importantly, profit. Comparing the first half of 2007 with the first half of this year the combined number of homes completed by Barratt, Bellway, Bovis Homes, Persimmon, Redrow and Taylor Wimpey has plunged to little more than half. Meanwhile, before taking account of the £4 billion in exceptional costs absorbed by the six in 2007 and 2008, the combined operating profit has plunged to almost zero (see graph 1). <br> <br> dramatic <br> <br> The graphs showing aggregated half-yearly data show the dramatic way that production and profit fell off a cliff. The prospects and the performance of housebuilders were transformed almost overnight during the first half of 2008. One of the consequences of this dramatic drop in the production of homes is the increasingly searching question of …