Archive for September, 2007
« Previous EntriesNew Home Sales See Biggest Year Over Year Drop In 37 Years
Friday, September 28th, 2007The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development issued their monthly joint report on August new house
sales on Thursday.
The July sales rate was itself revised downward from an original
estimate of 870,000 units. The stunning figure, however,
was the comparison of August 2007 data with that on sales one year
earlier….
Lennar and D.R. Horton Move To Staunch Housing Hemmorage
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007According to Sudeep Reddy and Michael Corkery writing in The Wall
Street Journal, “The housing market is going into a deeper chill, and
consumers are starting to shiver.”
Other market segments that are closely, even loosely tied to housing
construction and sales are beginning to report some distress. Monday,
Lowe’s reduced its earnings outlook for this year
and…
ARM Applications Continue To Dwindle While Rates Inched Up
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist
commented that, “Mortgage rates were largely unchanged in the previous
week, with long-term rates lingering at lower levels not seen since May.
The recent retreat in mortgage rates has brought in an increased
volume of mortgage applications, according to the Mortgage
Bankers Association, and pushed the share of applications for refinancing
to the highest rate since April.
NAR Report of Existing Home Sales No Surprise To Anyone
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007Probably no one who has read a paper or a website in the last 60 days
expected anything different, but the monthly report from the National
Association of Realtors (NAR) on Tuesday confirmed that once again the
sales of existing homes fell in August.
Total existing home sales which include single family homes, town
homes, condos, and co-ops…
GSEs May Soon Purchase Jumbo Loans But Other Limits Are Not Budging
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007Several Executive Branch surrogates indicated late last week that the
Administration was sort of willing to compromise about the role of
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in solving the current credit crunch. But the
announcements made and the methods proposed seem to this reporter to be
little, late, and misdirected. The two Government Sponsored Enterprises
(GSEs) - Freddie and Fannie - seemed a little confused
about what was happening as well.
…Then, on Saturday, the Wall Street Journal quoted a top regulator
(undoubtedly from OFHEO) who speculated that those
portfolio limits could be lifted in….
Major Homebuilder Runs Successful Weekend Sale
Friday, September 21st, 2007It seemed to smack a bit of desperation at the time, but in hindsight
it appears to look more like marketing genius.
Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc., one of the nation’s
largest homebuilders, threw open the doors of literally thousands of its
newly built homes or those that were under construction last weekend and,
in what media has described as a fire sale, offered deep discounts,
sometimes in the six figure range, to buyers ready to make a deal.
Well, whatever it was, it apparently worked…
Housing Starts Hit 12-Year Low
Thursday, September 20th, 2007Housing starts in August hit the lowest level on an
annualized basis since July 1995 The news would have been even worse if
it were not for a substantial increase in activity in multi-
family housing starts. Construction on projects with…
Another Dramatic Downturn in Mortgage Rates
Thursday, September 20th, 2007Even before the Federal Reserve’s
half point rate cut on Tuesday Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market
Survey showed another dramatic downturn in both long and
short term interest rates for conventional mortgages.
FHA Reform Moving Right Along
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007One day after the Fed cut rates and the House of Representatives
approved FHA Reform, the Senate Banking Committee
approved legislation that would expand the ability of the FHA to insure
mortgages, including higher-risk borrowers.
Fed Slashes Interest Rates By 50 Basis Points
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007The Federal Reserve slashed benchmark interest rates
by a half point in an agressive move to prevent the economy from moving
into recession and to ease the pains of the housing bubble. The decision
to cut the overnight federal funds rate from 5.25% to 4.75% was
unanimous. This is the lowest level since May of 2006 and the first time
the Fed has cut interest rates since June 2003. It was the first 1/2
point cut since November of 2002.