Housing still has a long way to go.
Home foreclosures fillings jumped 23 percent in the first quarter from 2007 Q4. First quarter fillings surged 112% from last year! Forget housing, we are not even at the foreclosures bottom.
"I'm more convinced that we haven't seen the peak of foreclosure activity yet, and the wave probably won't crest until late third or fourth quarter of 2008," he added.
That means no bottom in housing at least till 2009. Unsold inventories are still to high and foreclosures are adding to it.
Even Eli Broad, KB Home Co-founder, said he expects home prices to drop another 20 percent.
``I don't think we're anywhere near a bottom in housing,'' Broad told Bloomberg TV at the Milken Institute Conference in Beverly Hills, California. ``We're going to have a big inventory of unsold, unoccupied homes that's going to take three or four years to clear out.'' .....
The number of mortgage borrowers behind on their monthly payments rose to a 22-year high in December, according to the Washington-based Mortgage Bankers Association. The trade group estimated that 16 percent fewer mortgages will be issued this year compared with 2007.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/24363800
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGKDdHK2T9eo
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