Archive for April, 2009
You guessed it. Mortgage rates fell again in the week ending April 2, hitting another record-breaking low, according to Freddie Mac's (FRE: 0.00 N/A) Primary Mortgage Market Survey released Thursday. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 4.78 percent with an average 0.7 point, down from last week's 4.85 percent average, and far below the average last year at this time — 5.88 percent.
“Mortgage rates followed other interest rates lower this week amid reports of slower economic growth” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “The final estimate of economic growth in the fourth quarter was revised lower and personal incomes fell 0.2 percent in February, below the market consensus."
This week's 15-year fixed-rate mortgage eased as well, falling from 4.58 percent last week to 4.52 percent this week, marking the lowest 15-year FRM in the life of Freddie Mac's weekly survey, which dates back to 1991. At this time last year, the 15-year FRM averaged 5.42 percent.
The survey found Five-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 4.92 this week, down from last week's average of 4.96 percent, and One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 4.75 percent, compared to 4.85 percent last week.
Despite reports of slower economic growth this week — which is likely a major factor in falling rates — Freddie Mac's Nothaft said we are seeing some positive movement in the economy, as a result of those rates.
“[P]ending existing home sales rose 2.1 percent in February, marking the second increase in three months as potential homebuyers are taking advantage of historically low mortgage rates and falling home prices," Nothaft said. "Serving as a spur to sales, housing affordability reached an all-time high in February 2009 since the series' inception in 1971, according to the National Association of Realtors. By region, sales surged by nearly a third in the Northeast and Midwest, but fell in the West.”
A separate rates survey conducted by Bankrate.com also found that mortgage rates dropped to all-time lows this week. According to Bankrate, the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate fell 6 basis points to 5.13 percent, while the benchmark 15-year fixed-rate fell 7 basis points to 4.73 percent.
Write to Kelly Curran at kelly.curran@housingwire.com.
Disclosure: The author held no relevant investment positions when this story was published. Indirect holdings may exist via mutual fund investments. HW reporters and writers follow a strict disclosure policy, the first in the mortgage trade.
The Grayson-Himes pay-for-performance legislation passed the House of Representatives in a 247-171 vote late Wednesday. House Democrats carried the vote with 237 in favor. Ten House Republicans also voted in favor of the bill, while eight House Democrats voted against it. The bill — sponsored by Alan Grayson, D-Fla., and cosponsored by, among others, James Himes, D-Conn. — would limit the compensation and specifically bonuses paid to top executives and employees at major financial institutions that have received capital from the Treasury Department through the Capital Purchase Program.
Any firm that receives or has received a capital investment through TARP — and including Fannie Mae (FNM: 0.00 N/A), Freddie Mac (FRE: 0.00 N/A) and the Federal Home Loan banks — would be restricted from giving "unreasonable or excessive" compensation or any bonus "not directly based on performance-based measures," according to language in the bill. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner would be required within 30 days of the bill's passage — if it passes a Senate vote and final enactment — to establish to "unreasonable or excessive" and "performance-based" standards that will be applied to financial institutions.
The firms under compensation restrictions would be required to report annually on how many workers and employees received or will receive for the fiscal year total compensation over $500,000. The bill would also set up an executive compensation commission composed of nine members who would examine executive pay in terms of its linkage to overall performance.
Firms that have entered an agreement to repay TARP funds would not be held to the restrictions of the bill. An exemption recently added to the bill would lift the restrictions from community banks — or firms participating in TARP that have received capital contributions of no more than $250 million. For the remaining firms with excess of $250 million in government aid, however, the bill would mean strict compensatory regulation. There were at least 48 institutions — 50, if automakers General Motors and Chrysler are included — that fit the bill for this strict regulation, according to a HousingWire analysis of data provided by the Treasury through mid-March.
"The taxpayers now have an ownership stake in these companies. And owners of companies set salaries for their employees," Grayson said in a media statement. "Any company bent on paying its employees unreasonable and excessive compensation can do so after the American taxpayers get their money back.”
The legislation passed the House Committee on Financial Services in late March and now heads to a Senate vote. It has faced considerable controversy from Congressional Republicans who say such tight regulation of the banking industry may signal intrusive government control in other industries in the future. Fears of bank nationalization and unwanted regulation were fueled this week by the government-forced removal of GM CEO Rick Wagoner. Public outcry still lingers over the bonus fiasco at American International Group Inc. (AIG: 25.25 +0.44%), where top executives at AIG Financial Products were awarded $165 million in bonus payments.
The growing public outrage towards bankers, evident in the AIG bonus debacle, clearly has banking executives anxious to get out of the government’s back pocket as soon as possible, with four TARP recipients announcing Tuesday they had repaid TARP funds — at a total of $338 million. New York-based Signature Bank (SBNY: 58.39 +0.37%) returned $120 million to the Treasury, while Old National Bancorp (ONB: 12.09 +0.75%) bought back all of the $100 million in stock from the Treasury, IBERIABANK Corp. (IBKC: 52.54 -0.11%) returned $90 million and Bank of Marin Bancorp (BMRC: 39.05 +0.44%) gave back $28 million. None of the four banks had received enough capital to be subject to the strict regulation under the bill, but the reception of the government's intrusions in the banking industry were apparent in the banks' media statements.
“[B]y participating in [the TARP], we did our part to help stimulate the local economy during a volatile time for the financial markets,” said Bank of Marin president and CEO Russell Colombo. “Given the operating restrictions we experienced as a participant, we believe this decision is in the best interest of our customers, shareholders and employees.”
Write to Diana Golobay at diana.golobay@housingwire.com.
Disclosure: The author held no relevant investment positions when this story was published. Indirect holdings may exist via mutual fund investments. HW reporters and writers follow a strict disclosure policy, the first in the mortgage trade.
This past week, NPR ran an insightful series that focused in on how Fannie Mae is operationally responding to the nation's housing crisis. For those of us that come out of the default management space, there may not be a ton of new ground here, but it is a good overview for those looking to open the door into the oft-hidden world of servicing troubled loans. Kudos to the folks at Fannie Mae and at Nationstar for opening up and discussing at least some of their operations with the press.
Here's Part 1 of the series, and here's Part 2.
What I found interesting is the notion now that 'servicing matters' — that we're seeing employees in the servicing function value their role, and that they understand the critical role they now play in the nation's recovery:
With delinquencies on home loans increasing, the demands on Fannie Mae and its loan servicers are likely to keep increasing.
"As fast as we add staff to support, more and more homeowners are having issues and need and more and more help," says Pam Anderson, director of servicing management for Fannie Mae. She says servicing companies are getting increasingly backlogged with work.
But Anderson says people also care about her work more, and that makes her job more exciting. "It's changed so significantly," she says, "now that mortgage servicing is much more in the spotlight."
I'm hearing from plenty of servicing execs that we're now seeing a rethinking process around servicing, where some of a large company's best and brightest resources are now being diverted into what was once seen as 'black hole' for any smart, aspiring manager.
No respite for the labor market, as first-time applications for state unemployment benefits rose 12,000 to a seasonally-adjusted 669,000 in the week ending March 28, the Labor Department said Thursday. The week's reading is up 72 percent from the same period last year and marks the highest level of initial jobless claims since October of 1982.
The number of people still on the benefits roll after collecting at least one week of aid also jumped, from 161,000 to a record high of 5.73 million in the week ending March 21, indicating that job openings are few and far between as companies are forced to cut costs time and again.
The four week moving average of initial claims, which can sometimes smooth volatility, increased 6,500 to 656,750. The insured unemployment rate — the proportion of covered workers who are receiving benefits — rose to 4.3 percent, the highest reading since May of 1983.
The largest increases in initial claims were seen in California — where 6,720 people filed a claim in the week ending March 21 — Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa. The largest decreases were seen in Texas — where initial claims dropped by 4,822 — New York, Tennessee, Illinois and Virginia.
The jobless claims data comes on the heels of a report from the Commerce Department that showed big-ticketed manufactured goods increased in February for the first time in six months — maybe early signs of better things to come said some industry participants.
Nonetheless, the jobless data indicates the challenges that remain ahead of the nation, as it trecks down the road to recovery. "Claims are typically one of the very first indicators to signal economic recovery and there is no sign of that in the data yet," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, according to a Bloomberg report.
Write to Kelly Curran at kelly.curran@housingwire.com.
Disclosure: The author held no relevant investment positions when this story was published. Indirect holdings may exist via mutual fund investments. HW reporters and writers follow a strict disclosure policy, the first in the mortgage trade
The economy is "close to the bottom," according to Bank of America Corp.'s chief executive officer Ken Lewis. Lewis said he believes– like some economists, but certainly not all – that the economy will likely bottom out in the second half of this year before beginning a slow recovery in 2010.
“I think we’re at a point where you’re seeing mixed signals, housing sales a little better than you think, or car sales not being as bad as you think," Lewis said during an interview on CNBC Thursday morning. "And when you see the mixed signals, I think it signals that you’re getting close to the bottom."
Lewis also told CNBC he is "anxious" to return at least a portion of the $45 billion BofA recently received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, $20 billion of which it received as part of its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.; although, it's likely to take several quarters to repay those funds, he added.
Lewis expressed regret in BofA's acceptance of the full $45 billion. “That was my mistake,” Lewis said. “We took more than we needed, in an abundance of caution, and I regret having taken that much."
He said the next six months will be rough but that the current economic downturn is beginning to feel to him more like a typical recession than an all out freefall, according to a Market Watch report.
Write to Kelly Curran at kelly.curran@housingwire.com.
Disclosure: The author held no relevant investment positions when this story was published. Indirect holdings may exist via mutual fund investments. HW reporters and writers follow a strict disclosure policy, the first in the mortgage trade.
Did lenders target minorities with higher-cost loans, relative to their white counterparts? Consumer advocates have long trumpeted this as fact, using studies commissioned by their own staff and publicly-available data via the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act to allege that banks routinely and deliberately offered disparate terms to minority borrowers. And legislators have taken these findings at face value, no questions asked.
The latest such study to allege such disparity in lending practices was released Thursday morning by Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch, a New York-based consumer advocacy group, that argues "the seeming survivors of the banking meltdown, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, had worse disparities by race and ethnicity in denials and higher-cost lending than the banks they acquired, Wachovia and Countrywide."
The problem of course, is that consumer groups aren't disinterested observers of the data they're analyzing — you'd be hard pressed to find a consumer group of any sort releasing a study that finds evidence that banks did not engage in so-called 'reverse redlining,' for example. Doubly so in the current economic climate, where it can be all-too-easy to vilify essentially any bank, and where standards for analyzing data (and, more importantly, interpreting it) can be set with such a seemingly sliding scale.
The other problem is often the data itself: HMDA data is notoriously incomplete, meaning that conclusions based on analysis of that particular data often can be missing critical key credit indicators that might otherwise explain disparities that seem to be reported in previous studies.
All of which makes this week's release of a new joint study by researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Columbia School of Business something worth paying real attention to. And a study that should receive far more press and attention from regulators than it likely will.
The NY Fed study is groundbreaking particularly because it uses a hybrid data set that isn't reliant on just the HDMA data; the first such study to do so. The researchers matched approximately 70 percent of loan-level data in a database provided by First American LoanPerformance to unique mortgage data in the HDMA. Doing so was "extensive work," Andrew Haughwout, Christopher Mayer, and Joseph Tracy — co-authors of the study — note in review.
This is important: whatever you know or don't know about research, the garbage-in, garbage-out mantra applies here moreso than almost any other endeavor. And I've long been bothered by the notion that the analysis of HMDA data lacked any insight into the borrower's credit risk profile.
All of which makes the findings of this study, which looked at more than 70,000 subprime 2/28s originated in 2005, an absolute barn-burner for anyone in the mortgage space:
In contrast to previous findings, our results show that if anything, minority borrwers get slightly favorable terms, although the size of these effects are quite small. Black and Hispanic borrowers pay very slightly lower initial mortgage rates than other borrowers — about 2.5 basis points (0.0025 percent) compared with a mean initial mortgage rate of 7.3 percent. Black and Hispanic borrowers also have slightly lower margins (about 1.7 to 5 basis points, or 0.0017 to 0.005 percent) compared to a mean margin of 5.9 percent. Asian borrowers pay slightly higher initial rates and reset margins (about 3 basis points). We find no appreciable differences in lending terms by the gender of the borrower. These results control for the mortgage risk characteristics and neighborhood composition. While many of these differences are statistically significant, they are economically insignificant.
A second important finding is that 2/28 mortgages were cheaper in Zip Codes with a higher percentage of Asian, black and Hispanic residents, as well as in counties with higher unemployment rates, once we control for the individual risk characteristics of the borrower.
I can't state this clearly enough: this is a stake in the heart of the argument, made by most consumer groups, that lenders used predatory practices to target minorities for the worst loans. And on the surface, any of us should know this without the need for hard data: during the boom, loans were being made to anyone and everyone that could fog up a window. And I mean everyone — why do you think we're now seeing such strong and swift performance deterioration in prime jumbo mortgages? The argument suggesting that minorities were disproportionately targeted and offered comparatively more onerous loan terms shouldn't have passed the smell test for anyone that actually worked in the mortgage industry during those go-go years.
To be sure, there are still plenty of unanswered questions here; the study does not address the question of "steering," as consumer groups have also long alleged. The idea here is that minority borrowers were put into higher-cost subprime loans more often than white counterparts, when they could have qualified for a more traditional mortgage. But again, the results of this study should lead you to ask yourself: would this just be a phenomena limited to minorities?
Likewise, the study does not address qualification standards, or a lender's refusal to offer credit. But I doubt many consumer groups have been willing to argue that lenders were failing to extend credit to minority borrowers during the housing boom from 2003-2006 (roughly speaking). Nor does the study look outside of 2005 subprime 2/28s.
Nonetheless, I think it's time we at least began to lend some real credence to the idea that lax lending practices were an epidemic in this country. It's an epidemic that is now clearly hurting minority borrowers, absolutely — and especially so, given the gains in minority homeownership that are now evaporating — but not just minority borrowers and/or borrowers with lower incomes and poor credit. That's something I think we all need to start considering, especially when faced with a growing set of data — repeatedly covered here at HousingWire, and largely ignored by the rest of press and, apparently, many consumer groups — suggesting that the least credit-worthy borrowers are more than twice as likely to receive a loan modification once they fall behind on their mortgage, relative to their prime-credit peers.
Write to Paul Jackson at paul.jackson@housingwire.com.
The first large-scale purchase of defaulted mortgages by an alliance of U.S. nonprofit organizations was announced Wednesday. HANDS, Inc. said it has acquired the defaulted mortgages on 47 vacant homes in the greater Newark area, all of which are vacant and abandoned.
HANDS purchased the mortgages from J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM: 37.21 -0.75%), as part of a new strategy to reclaim neighborhoods hard-hit by foreclosure, and is working with its partners in Operation Neighborhood Recovery to rehabilitate the properties so they may become "cornerstones for productive change in their surrounding communities," instead of magnets for increased crime and vandalism, creating general neighborhood blight.
“Time is our enemy and early intervention is the key to battling the destabilizing influence of abandoned and foreclosed properties on neighborhoods,” said Patrick Morrissy, executive director of HANDS, a member of the NeighborWorks network. “We knew that as time passed, the properties would continue to deteriorate, their values would plummet, as would the home values in the overall neighborhood."
HANDS will ultimately convey groups of the properties to Operation for Neighborhood Recovery partners that work in the properties’ respective neighborhoods, and who have agreed to rehabilitate the properties and make them available for affordable homeownership.
One may ask how such an organization acquired the funds to purchase, repair and maintain 47 homes — a cost which is anticipated to total around $5.4 million. New Jersey Community Capital, a community development financial institution working throughout New Jersey, took a lead role in the transaction, according to a HANDS press statement.
The institution coordinated the provision of debt and equity from Prudential Social Investment, Local Initiatives Support Corporation-Greater Newark & Jersey City, NeighborWorks America, and Enterprise Community Partners.
“New Jersey Community Capital supported this project from the beginning because of its innovative nature and the dramatic impact it can have on the affected communities," said Robert Zdenek, president of New Jersey Community Capital. "Because of its extensive financing needs and risky nature, the collaboration on this transaction was essential, and provided a new opportunity for this group of socially responsible funders to work together on such a pivotal project."
By acquiring the group of mortgages in bulk purchase, HANDS said it is able to immediately invest in stabilizing the vacant properties and return them to productive use. HANDS faces significant carrying costs — interest, property taxes and insurance — during this process, requiring a collaborative effort throughout all phases of the project to make it a success, the organization stressed.
Operation Neighborhood Recovery represents the first transaction of its kind in the nation and looks to create a community asset preservation model, which the organization said could serve as a vital function in the solution to the foreclosure crisis.
Write to Kelly Curran at kelly.curran@housingwire.com.
Disclosure: The author held no relevant investment positions when this story was published. Indirect holdings may exist via mutual fund investments. HW reporters and writers follow a strict disclosure policy, the first in the mortgage trade.
Four regional banks have become the first institutions to repay TARP funds, the New York Times reported Tuesday. The repurchase of stocks bought months ago by the Treasury Department marks the beginning of what industry sources have for weeks indicated will be a flight from bailout funds as federal regulation tightens in recipient firms.
New York-based Signature Bank (SBNY: 58.39 +0.37%) announced Tuesday it had returned $120 million to the Treasury and boasted tangible common equity in excess of 8 percent after the return. Among the first four firms to repurchase stock from the Treasury, Signature Bank also boasts the largest repurchase. Combined with contributions from three other regional banks, repurchases of stock through the Capital Purchase Program total $338 million.
"The revised, expanded legislation included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, passed on February 17, 2009, adversely affected our business model and it became apparent that we should return these funds to the Treasury," president and CEO Joseph DePaolo said in a media statement. "The return of these funds allows us to continue to execute our business model…."
Old National Bancorp (ONB: 12.09 +0.75%) said Tuesday it had repurchased all of the $100 million in preferred stock the Treasury had bought through the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The company said it had hired an outside firm to conduct a "rigorous stress test" comparable to the Treasury-implemented one for significant institutions. With the Treasury's blessing, Old National went ahead with the stock repurchases. "Based on the results of the stress test, the company believes it is well-positioned to withstand the current and future economic challenges," company officials said in a press statement.
IBERIABANK Corp. (IBKC: 52.54 -0.11%), the holding company of Louisiana-based IBERIABANK and Pulaski Bank and Trust Co., announced Tuesday it returned $90 million to the Treasury through the redemption of all shares of preferred stock sold back in December through the TARP.
Bank of Marin Bancorp (BMRC: 39.05 +0.44%), the parent company of Bank of Marin, announced Tuesday it had repurchased $28 million of preferred stock previously sold to the Treasury. Company officials assured investors in a media statement that Bank of Marin retains risk-based capital exceeding the standard for a "well-capitalized" institution.
"[B]y participating in [the TARP], we did our part to help stimulate the local economy during a volatile time for the financial markets," said president and CEO Russell Colombo. "Given the operating restrictions we experienced as a participant, we believe this decision is in the best interest of our customers, shareholders and employees."
Next in the flight from aid?
The growing public outrage towards bankers, evident in the AIG bonus debacle, clearly has banking executives anxious to get out of the government’s back pocket as soon as possible, with Bank of America Corp. (BAC: 7.29 -0.14%) CEO Ken Lewis telling the Los Angeles Times in late March that he intends BofA to begin repayment of government funds as soon as a “stress test” of the bank is complete at the end of the month. Firms receiving government aid are subject to strict executive compensation restrictions, and a growing fear of changing standards over how much freedom firms have to manage their businesses. Goldman Sachs (GS: 111.77 +2.96%) confirmed that it planned to pay its entire $10 billion TARP stake back, possibly by the end of April, following the disclosure of “stress test” results.
In late February, Financial Services chairman Barney Frank and other House Democrats issued a letter demanding repayment of $1.6 billion after learning of Northern Trust Corp.'s (NTRS: 41.67 +1.44%) sponsorship of a luxury golf tournament. The company on Feb. 27 sent a reply to Congress defending the golf tournament expenditures as a long-planned event not dependent any of the TARP capital. Northern Trust “has engaged [its] regulators with the goal of repaying Capital Purchase Program funds as quickly as prudently possible” under repayment guidelines released by the Treasury in late February, officials said in the letter.
Write to Diana Golobay at diana.golobay@housingwire.com.
Disclosure: The author held no relevant investment positions when this story was published. Indirect holdings may exist via mutual fund investments. HW reporters and writers follow a strict disclosure policy, the first in the mortgage trade.
As many as 374 of the nation’s 381 Metropolitan Statistical Areas – or 98 percent – are currently facing an increased risk of lower home prices through year-end 2010, according to data released Wednesday by PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. (PMI: 0.00 N/A).
Albeit, the bit of good news, according to PMI's U.S. Market Risk Index and First Quarter Economic and Real Estate Trends Report, is 212 of the nation’s MSAs hold a minimal-to-low risk of lower prices in two years.
Still, 21 of the nation’s 50 largest MSAs are in the highest risk category, signifying the highest probability of lower house prices by the end of the fourth quarter of 2010, relative to the fourth quarter of 2008.
“As the recession deepened during the fourth quarter of 2008, increasing rates of unemployment and foreclosures continued to place downward pressure on house price appreciation,” said David Berson, PMI’s chief economist and strategist. “Combined with upward movements in excess housing supply in many parts of the country, these deteriorating conditions are increasing risk of house price declines over the next two years.”
Of the nation's 50 largest MSAs, the top three "riskiest" areas, as subject to declining home values, are Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Fla., Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., and Ft. Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, Fla. The most stable of the 50 largest MSAs include Pittsburgh, Pa., Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, Ohio, and Columbus, Ohio.
Over the past several quarters, PMI said it has seen the risk rising fastest in the large urban centers across the country, while smaller MSAs have faired relatively better in their current and projected price performance.
The report also noted that affordability has improved in many MSAs, as housing prices continued to decline and mortgage rates fell to record lows.
PMI’s proprietary “Affordability Index” found affordability improved in the 106 MSAs ranked in the two highest risk categories. For all 381 MSAs, the weighted average affordability reading was 120.6 in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to a third quarter 2008 reading of 114.5 — an Affordability Index score exceeding 100 indicates that homes have become more affordable; a score below 100 means they are less affordable.
Write to Kelly Curran at kelly.curran@housingwire.com.
Disclosure: The author held no relevant investment positions when this story was published. Indirect holdings may exist via mutual fund investments. HW reporters and writers follow a strict disclosure policy, the first in the mortgage trade.
Lennar Corp. (LEN: 22.28 +0.68%), a major U.S. home builder, reported this week a first-quarter net loss of $155.9 million — or 98 cents per share — for the quarter ended Feb. 28, 2009. A 38 percent decline in home orders and a 12 percent decrease in average sales price from the same quarter last year drove the company's narrowed home sales revenues — down 45 percent from last year to $522.8 million.
"Despite historically low interest rates and some indicators pointing toward market stabilization, low consumer confidence, increased unemployment and growing foreclosure rates negatively impacted new home sales in most of our markets," president and CEO Stuart Miller said in a company earnings statement. "While we are hopeful that the recent actions taken by the Federal government will help stimulate housing demand and restore consumer confidence, we continue to adjust our business to adapt to market conditions."
The company reported delivering 2,136 new homes in the first quarter 2009, down from 3,437 homes in the year-ago period. Administrative expenses were reduced by $73.8 million — or 42 percent — from the year-ago quarter, primarily due to layoffs, according to the company.
The company's financial services segment posted $0.5 million in earnings for the quarter, compared with $9.7 million in losses at the segment in the year-ago quarter. The bit of good news for the segment was the result of "cost reductions" in mortgage and title operations, the company said.
Miller told investors in a conference call earlier this week that improved March sales are not "defining a trend yet," but simply indicative of seasonality. He did not rule out, however, the signs of an approaching bottom, according to an article posted Tuesday by Big Builder News. "One can sense that resolution is not too far off," he said, according to the article. "The home building market will rebound. It will have to rebound in order to bring the rest of the market to its feet."
The announcement let a bit of steam out of the argument for an improving housing market that has been building in recent weeks. But indicators are looking slightly better for existing home sales. After falling almost 8 percent in January, the activity of pending home sales reversed in February, rising 2.1 percent, according to data released by the National Association of Realtors Wednesday — indicating existing home sales will soon climb as well.
Write to Diana Golobay at diana.golobay@housingwire.com.
Disclosure: The author held no relevant investment positions when this story was published. Indirect holdings may exist via mutual fund investments. HW reporters and writers follow a strict disclosure policy, the first in the mortgage trade.
