Late Monday morning one of Citigroup’s analysts, Stephen Kim,
downgraded the entire homebuilding sector because he
could not find anything to suggest that the residential housing market
would improve until the second quarter of 2008.
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter on Monday
to Ronald A Rosenfeld, Chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board,
expressing his “serious concern over the lending practices of the Federal
Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, specifically in regard to the significant
volume of advances made to Countrywide Bank.”
The average interest rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage with no upfront points fell to 6.0 percent on Monday, the first time since late 2005 that itâs been at that level. In addition, 15-year fixed rate mortgages can now be obtained at rates not seen since early 2006.
It may be hard to remember now but there was a time when real
estate was fun, maybe even fun and games. It was in those long
ago days before falling housing starts, crashing real estate values, and
the sub-prime mortgage debacle consumed so many companies and jobs and so
much time, energy, and newsprint.