New Home Sales and other Good News (For Stocks)

New home sales had biggest fall in 13 years.  But that should be good news for Home Builders because Homebuilders ETF (XHB) is up 2%.  Beazer is up 7%.  And this is just today. 

 

I guess this means we have a new bottom in housing market. 

 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/23369328

 

In other good news for the builder stocks and stocks in general, mortgage application declined for third straight week.  Mortgage applications were down 20% from last week.  Since mid-january, the 30-year rate has risen .78 percentage point - while the feds were cutting the rate.

 

Toll Brothers Reported it's biggest loss ever. It posted a first quarter loss of $96 million, or 61 cents a share. 

Toll signed a total of 904 contracts for new homes in the quarter, down about 38 percent from a year earlier. The value of the contracts fell 46 percent to $573.1 million. The average price of a home under contract was $634,000 compared with $646,000 in the prior quarter.

 

In the first quarter, signed contracts after cancellations totaled 647 homes, or $375.1 million, a decline of 37 percent in units and 50 percent in dollars.

 

The dollar value of contract after cancellations was down 50%!

 

 Fannie, Freddie Regulator to Lift Investment Caps - Now let Fannie and Freddie overextend themselves like the homeowners!  What a solution!  I hope they don't have to declare foreclosure in future.  Just bankrupt the future for a small present gain!

 

"In recognition of the progress being made by both companies, as indicated by the timely release of their 2007 audited financial statements, and consistent with the terms of the relevant agreements, Ofheo will remove the portfolio growth caps for both companies on March 1, 2008," the regulator said in a statement.

 

For the quarter, Fannie swung to a loss of $3.80 a share from profit of 49 cents in the year-earlier period.

 

The loss was worse than expected: Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting Fannie Mae to report a loss of $1.21 a share.

 

 So they are losing money, but we are lifting caps because of the timely release of their 2007 financial statements.

 

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/fannie-mae-shares-zoom-higher/story.aspx?guid=%7B90452788%2D5151%2D4950%2D9F18%2D8297B442C324%7D