Yesterday, the stock market saw a large fall in quarterly earnings at Countrywide Financial, the largest US mortgage lender. Its shares dropped by more than 10%. Countrywide reported a sharp drop in second-quarter profit, and slashed its earnings forecast because credit problems are spreading to a wider population of borrowers than once believed.
Countrywide indicated that the more-creditworthy prime borrowers are also struggling to make payments, an alarming sign given predictions that the mortgage crisis was limited to the subprime arena. The company's chairman said he did not believe market conditions would improve soon. "We expect difficult housing and mortgage market conditions to persist" for the rest of the year, he said.
The stock dropped 10.5%, to $30.50, after touching a new 52-week low of $29.50, on volume of more than 51 million shares.
Be sure to read my article "A Trend to Go National?" originally published 11/17/05.
[tags]home loans,foreclosures,mortgage loans,housing bubble,real estate bubble[/tags] San Diego realty agents California home foreclosures
Lenders and greed are the reasons we are now in such bad shape. San Diego cosmetic dentist
Houses will only fall 30% if everyone rushes for the exits. 5 years ago many markets were underpriced and it’s highly unlikely they’ll go back to that level. There’s still a lot of demand for housing and THERE ALWAYS WILL BE! Anyone predicting a 40% decline is making a prediction because he earns money by making predictions!
Cate
San Diego Vacations
In the 70’s people had equity in their homes and credit card debt was not maxed out by as many as it is today it was a much different time, so much so its very scary today.
Sam
San Diego California Real Estate
How do you hedge in the market against falling house prices?
Jake
San Diego County Real Estate