More Evidence of U.S. Home Market Crater
It is one thing for researchers to estimate what portion of Americans own their homes. It is another for Americans to say for themselves whether they own a home. A new poll from Gallup shows that…
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Newest first · Page 177Benanke Housing Worry
One the heels of bad housing numbers from S&P/Case-Shiller, Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke told a news conference that the largest threat to the US economy remains home prices. He said that the problem…
Low Prices, Record-low Mortgages Aren’t Attracting Home Buyers
In a continuation of the mixed signals we keep getting from the US housing market, this week’s data on mortgage applications shows a decline of -3.3% from the previous week. The largest portion of…
New Home Sales Drop 7.1%
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the US Census Bureau released the March data on new home sales this morning. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales fell by -7.1% to…
Case-Shiller–Home Prices Collapse
Case-Shiller, the housing research operation, reports that home prices continued their horrible collapse in January. The note said Data through February 2012, released today by S&P Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure…
Homebuilder Horton Beats Estimates, Expects Full-year Profit (DHI, PHM, LEN, HOV, TOL, NVR, KBH, XHB)
Hopes for a recovery in homebuilding have picked up recently, primarily as a result of pent-up demand for new household formation. All those college grads who moved back in with their parents are supposedly…
Genworth IPO Delay, Reaction Too Harsh? (GNW)
Genworth Financial, Inc. (NYSE: GNW) was supposed to be sailing toward an initial public offering of up to 40% of its Australian mortgage insurance business. A new delay in the planned timeframe is just…
Housing Starts Take A Beating
More evidence that the housing market’s recovery is waiving if it exists at all. The Commerce Department released data that showed an unexpected drop in housing starts. Builders are current worried about inventory. Several…
Apollo Residential Mortgage More Than Doubles Size In Offering (AMTG)
Apollo Residential Mortgage, Inc. (NYSE: AMTG) is using some recent strength to sell more shares. The problem is the size of the offering at 13.9 million shares. At Monday’s closing price the gross proceeds…
Fears of a New Housing Peak? (LEN, KBH, DHI, PHM, TOL, HD, LOW)
The housing market is supposed to be doing better and the lack of a new recession is supposed to have helped to put in a floor under what had been consistently falling house prices. …
Homebuilder Cuts Dividend (KBH)
KB Home (NYSE: KBH) announced late yesterday that the company’s quarterly dividend for its second fiscal quarter ending in May will be reduced from $0.0625 to $0.025. In the announcement, the company’s CEO spelled…
Foreclosures at Five-Year Low: A False Positive
RealtyTrac, which puts out one of the most closely followed reports on national home foreclosures, said the rate of foreclosures reached the lowest level in 56 months during March. The first-quarter total was the…
Fed’s Beige Book Highlights
The so-called Federal Reserve Beige Book is out and there is some good news and bad news here for bulls and bears alike. The bad news as far as the free money stimulus crowd…
The Ongoing Case For Mattress Firm (MFRM)
Mattress Firm Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: MFRM) is turning out to prove that there is money under mattresses other than just those who fear that they have to hoard cash. The company is the leading…
Mortgages Harder to Get (ELLI)
What was once considered an excellent credit score now disqualifies a borrower from obtaining a mortgage. The COO of mortgage industry services provider Ellie Mae (AMEX: ELLI) put the issue in stark terms: Last…