Originating Mortgage Loans

Los Angeles Times (02/14/07); Haddad, Annette
KB Home this week posted a better-than-anticipated quarterly loss, improved cancellation rates and rebounding sales on both the East and West coasts, signaling that the country's housing downturn may be abating. To date in the fiscal first quarter set to end Feb. 28, KB Home's orders for new houses have decreased only 10 percent from year-earlier levels. In addition, the rate at which buyers are canceling orders has return to the "normalized" 20- to 30-percent threshold. However, this improvement is coming at the expense of profit margins for KB Home and competing builders, nearly all of whom continue to slash prices and offer discount incentives to entice buyers.
(More - Registration Required)

Successful LO (Dwight Taylor) outlines his successful construction market blueprint.

Developing a Construction-Builder Niche

DWIGHT TAYLOR is a mortgage loan officer and vice president at BB&T Mortgage, Woodbridge, Va. E-mail: Loanhunter1@aol.com

MBA (2/13/2007) Sorohan, Mike
ORLANDO-Consolidation, a trend already well-documented in the mortgage and banking industries, has had an increasing role in the home building industry as well. But the recent slowdown in the housing industry has also slowed home builder consolidation activity.
(Full Story)

Chicago Tribune (01/18/07)
The recent decrease in borrowing costs and increase in applications for mortgages have given U.S. home builders more confidence about new residential sales in the months to come. According to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index, industry sentiment has risen to a six-month high of 35 in January--up from a revised reading of 33 last month. Builders consider market conditions to be poor when a reading fails to reach 50, and the latest assessment comes on the heels of an estimated 17-percent decline in sales in 2006. Three of four regions recorded increases in confidence, while the West was unchanged in its outlook.
(More - Registration Required)

Wall Street Journal (01/05/07) P. C8; Morrissey, Janet
JMP analyst Alex Barron believes the 17 home builders he monitors will record average declines of 80 percent in earnings and 37 percent in orders for the fourth quarter. Barron also anticipates land-related write-downs in excess of analysts' expectations, adding that quarterly write-downs will likely extend well into next year. The anticipated write-down of $400 to $500 million announced by Lennar Corp. for its fiscal fourth quarter, for instance, was double the expectations of Morgan Stanley analyst Rob Stevenson. Toll Brothers Inc. Chairman Robert Toll and Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. CEO Ara Hovnanian are among the home building executives who say housing markets in some locations are beginning to stabilize.
(More - Subscription Required)