Blanche Evans / RealtyTimes

Underperform? What an understatement. The latest housing report from the National Association of Realtors shows that May’s existing home sales were 10.3 percent below the same month’s sales in 2006, exacerbated by a burgeoning 8.9-month supply of homes for sale. Home sales eased by 0.3 percent, essentially flat from April’s numbers, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.99 million units.

That’s all existing homes — single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops.

To view all of this article, please visit this link at RealtyTimes

Home prices fall for a record tenth-straight month

AP / MSNBC

WASHINGTON – Sales of existing homes fell for a third straight month in May, dropping to the lowest level in four years as the median sales price declined for a record 10th consecutive month.

In a troubling sign for the future, the inventory of unsold homes shot up to the highest level in 15 years, meaning more downward pressure on prices in the months ahead until the inventory glut is reduced.

To view all of this article, please visit this link at MSNBC

Rob Rafter / CNBC

Highest default rates not expected until the second quarter of 2008
Is the subprime mortgage crisis really just the tip of the iceberg? Bond ratings agencies seem to be playing catch up and some market participants suggest we have only just glimpsed the rising wave of downgrades poised to wash over the massive MBS and CDO markets.

Josh Rosner, Managing Director at Graham Fisher & Company, and Janet Tavakoli, President of Tavakoli Structured Finance, join Squawk Box at 7:00 a.m. EST to tell CNBC’s Joe Kernen there could be further downside risk for both mortgages and the U.S housing market.

To view all of this article, please visit this link at CNBC

Kathleen M. Howley – Bloomberg News – Bloomberg.com

The worst is yet to come for the U.S. housing market.

The jump in 30-year mortgage rates by more than a half a percentage point to 6.74 percent in the past five weeks is putting a crimp on borrowers with the best credit just as a crackdown in subprime lending standards limits the pool of qualified buyers. The national median home price is poised for its first annual decline since the Great Depression, and the supply of unsold homes is at a record 4.2 million, the National Association of Realtors reported.
To view all of this article, please visit this link at Bloomberg.com

Comstock Partners, Inc.

The near-collapse of two big Bear Stearns hedge funds heavily invested in highly-speculative packages of subprime mortgages indicates that the severe housing recession is spreading to the financial arena and is threatening the occurrence of systemic fallout. It is estimated that various institutions own about $6 trillion of mortgage-backed securities of which about $800 billion are subprime. About 13% of subprime mortgages are currently in default, and foreclosure rates on these loans are soaring.

To view all of this article, please visit this link at Comstock Partners

Les Christie, CNNMoney.com

More than $1 trillion worth of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) will be hit with higher reset rates this year, and that could add up to big trouble for many homeowners.
Already, the rate of serious delinquencies among subprime hybrid ARM borrowers was up to 15.75 percent during the first quarter, from 14.44 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

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Jeremy Herron – UNION-TRIBUNE – ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Slow economic growth into late ‘08, says report

Dean Calbreath – UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

The continuing downturn in the real estate market will result in sluggish economic growth in California through late 2008 and home sales may not stabilize until mid-2009, according to a report released today by one of the state’s leading economic think tanks.

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Contractors say market probably won’t improve until next year

Rex Nutting, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The outlook for U.S. home building is the worst in 16 years, the National Association of Home Builders reported Monday. The builders’ housing market index fell by two points to 28 in June, the lowest since February 1991.
The market probably won’t turn around until next year, said David Seiders, chief economist for the builders. “We expect housing to exert a drag on economic growth during the balance of 2007.”

To view all of this article, please visit this link at MarketWatch

Delinquencies jump among riskiest loans; California, Nevada hit hard
By John W. Schoen – Senior Producer – MSNBC

As the U.S. housing market continues to slog through a hangover from its post-millennium boom, mortgage foreclosure data released Thursday provide fresh evidence that the slow-motion unwinding of the easy-money mania is still under way.
To view all of this article, please visit this link at MSNBC