Moody’s Cutting GSE’s, The Ride Continues (FNM, FRE)
Moody’s has come out with a downgrade this morning on the preferred stock ratings of Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE). The ratings have been taken down to Baa3 from A1…
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Newest first · Page 210Saving Fannie Mae (FNM) And Freddie Mac (FRE) Shareholders
A share of Fannie Mae (FNM) goes for $6. Freddie Mac’s (FRE) shares are at just above $4. The market caps of the two companies combined is only about $9 billion. The most recent…
Lowe’s Manages By Staying Cautious (LOW, HD)
Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) managed to actually beat earnings projections and managed a gain in revenues. The hardware and home improvement store posted earnings per share with a drop of 4.5% to $0.64…
You Can Sell The House, Under Replacement Value
Existing home sales rose in Q2 over Q1, but this is on major price cuts according to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors. This says that one-quarter of cities (35 out…
Slow Housing Equals Slow Lawn Mower Market (BGG, TTC)
Shares of Briggs & Stratton Corp. (NYSE: BGG) are trading down about 10% pre-market this morning after the company said that high materials costs and slower sales were affecting its financial performance. This company…
Greenspan Versus Foreclosure Rates
Alan Greenspan was over at The Wall Street Journal playing his wise old man act. He is ancient, but he may also be dumb. Greenspan made the point that housing should bottom in the…
Toll Brothers (TOL) CEO Sees Housing Recovery — Who Cares What He Thinks?
Struggling upscale homebuilder Toll Brothers (TOL) saw its homebuilding revenue fall 34% for the third quarter, but CEO Robert Toll is sounding an optimistic note, telling shareholders that "Although the rate of cancellations as…
The Foreclosure Problem: Death By A Thousand Cuts
The rate of foreclosures continues to accelerate. That generally means that banks are dumping them as fast as they can. Banks don’t want to own houses. And, why should they? The value of the…
A Third Of US Homes Underwater?
Many Americans own more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. That number seems to be rising fast. Bloomberg writes that "Almost one-third of U.S. homeowners who bought in the last five years…
The Mortgage Crater Gets Deeper, Storm Flags Up For Banks
The IMF and NYU economist Nouriel Roubini can say "I told you so." Both put estimates for mortgage write-downs at over $1 trillion. Banks executives are hoping the number is half of that. The…
M/I Homes Files To Raise Cash (MHO)
M/I Homes, Inc. (NYSE: MHO) has just filed for a mixed shelf registration statement with the SEC that will give it the right to sell up to $250 million in securities. The company can…
WCI Raises Black Flag, Skull & Crossbones (WCI)
We have yet to see public homebuilders file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. WCI Communities Inc. (NYSE: WCI) is the first of the former large homebuilders to file for bankruptcy protection. The homebuilder has…
Housing Market Continues To Plunge
The housing market continues to be in freefall. The S&P/Case-Shiller Index plunged 15.8 percent in May, the biggest decline since records began being kept in 2001. All 20 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) measured by…
Foreclosure Rates Rocket Further Imperiling Banks (FRE)(FNM)
A number of analysts believe that there can be no recovery in bank earnings and share prices as long as the housing market is troubled. If that opinion is right, new foreclosure data paints…
Fannie Mae (FNM) And Freddie Mac (FRE): The Bail-Out Begins
Concerns about the financial health of Freddie Mac (FRE) and Fannie Mae (FNM) and the huge repercussions which would occur in the banking and mortgage industry if either one fails has cause the government…