Housing Starts: A Multi-Family Affair
The US government has just issued housing reports. Housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted 591,000 equating to a 2.8% increase. That is the best report we have seen since last summer. This data…
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Newest first · Page 197BofA/Merrill Lynch Resumes Homebuilder Coverage (TOL, BZH, KBH, RYL, DHI, HOV, PHM, LEN, MDC, XHB)
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch has initiated coverage of the homebuilder sector this morning. Technically this is a resumption of coverage. While some are positive calls, there are still some cautious undertones here from the…
Mortgage Delinquencies Soar
Most of the news about housing has been bad since the beginning of February. Heavy snow probably kept potential buyers out of the market. New data show that the number of foreclosures will probably…
The Foreclosure Problem Deepens
The value of homes will continue to drop. At least that is the conclusion from two studies reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. The reports are from John Burns Real Estate Consulting and S&P.…
January Foreclosures Up 15% From Same Month Last Year
Foreclosures in the US reached 315,716 in January. The number was down 10% from December but up 15% from January 2009. The figures were released by RealtyTrac. The research firm expects another sharp increase in foreclosures…
As Mortgage Rates Move Above 5%, A New Normal For Home Buyers
The housing market is already up against a number of barriers to recovery. High unemployment keeps millions of people out of the market for homes. Banks are wary to give mortgages to even the…
More People Pay Credit Cards Ahead Of Mortgages
Better to be able to have a credit card than to own a home. TransUnion reports in a new study that the percentage of people current on their credit cards but delinquent on their mortgages rose…
New Home Sales Heading Wrong Way (XHB, ITB)
New home sales in December went back the wrong way, which was largely expected considering the data we had already seen from the housing sector in the last week. The problem is that the…
Killing Fannie & Freddie (FNM, FRE)
Barney Frank may have caused a recovery of some banking losses in trading yesterday by saying he’d be against any bank-trading abolition that would be immediate and/or financially disruptive to an economy that is…
Another Blow To Housing: US Mortgage Plan Fails
The US government plans to put as much as $75 billion into programs to keep people in their homes and stanch the flow of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures. The intention behind the plans is to…
US Mortgage Efforts Fail As Foreclosures Sky Rocket
There is absolutely no sign that the foreclosure problem in the US is even close to an end point. Data from RealtyTrac shows that there were 3,957,643 foreclosure filings last year, a record. The…
Lennar Saves Beazer, But Sets High Mark Tone (BZH, LEN, XHB, ITB, KBH)
Beazer Homes USA Inc. (NYSE: BZH) was weak earlier because of its proposed secondary offering that will add to dilution of shareholders. This morning the company’s secondary offering of 19,500,000 shares of its common…
Vacancy Rates Rise To 8% As Homeowners Move To Leasing
It is a paradox and one that is bad for both the residential and housing real estate markets. Reis, an industry analyst group, says that the vacancy rate in the apartment sector rose 8%,…
Commercial Real Estate Begins To Mirror Residential Market
The residential real estate crisis is over. Home prices are stable. The number of people who are in the market for a home is up. Tax credits and home prices, which are still historically…
Signs Of The Apocalypse: Rich Lose Homes, Pending Homes Sales Off
Pending home sales fell in November as the National Association of Realtors index for that part of the market fell to 96 in November from 114.3 in October. The sharp drop brought with it the…