Home sales hit slowest pace in 5 years by Delia Cruceru

Lawrence Yun, chief executive at NAR released a press release saying that July home sales were down 9% from July 2006. "Home sales probably would be raising in the absence of the mortgage liquidity issues of the past two months," Yun said. This is the worst decay in 16 years of housing, and analyst think there's many to come. According to the National Association of Realtors the sales of existing homes dipped by 0.2 percent in July, compared to June, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.75 million units. Ethan S. Harris, chief economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings in New York said "We are very likely to see home sales continue to drop. There's a big imbalance between supply and demand, with lots of people who want to sell and lots of hesitant buyers." The number of unsold homes now rose to by 5.1 percent to a record level of 4.59 million homes, analyst saying that it would take 9.2 months to exhaust the number of single-family homes on the market, and 11.9 months to exhaust the level of condominiums on the market. "We are literally swimming in an ocean of homes for sale," said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research Inc. "Until we work through this extremely large inventory glut, we're not going to see any momentum in home prices."

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070827/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy;_ylt=AnJkI1fFJaC_cpvPIQ_ZHl2s0NUE

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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Countrywide CEO sees recession ahead by Delia Cruceru

Chief Executive of Countrywide Financial Corp, Angelo Mozilo said that U.S largest mortgage lender will survive, but the housing downturn will lead the country to recession. When Mozilo was asked about recession, he said: "I think so ... I know I've been proven wrong so far, but I can't believe that when you're having a level of delinquencies, foreclosures - equity has disappeared, equity is gone, the tide has gone out - that this doesn't have a material effect, A, on the psyches of the American people, and eventually on their wallet." Bank of America Corp. invested $2 billion in Countrywide to help shoring up their finances, but Mozilo says Countrywide would not be sold to U.S second largest bank. He called the investment a "vote of confidence" and a "priceless endorsement." Mozilo said that the Federal Reserve should reduce even more its rates so it should be the same as the federal funds rate, now 5.25 percent. Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors in New York said: ""The Fed has cut the discount rate and added liquidity to the markets but those things aren't enough to turn the fundamental market around." According to him the funds rate should be cut to 4.25 percent by year end. In an interview, Countrywide CEO accused Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Kenneth Bruce of "irresponsible behavior" because he said on August 15th that Countrywide might face a possible bankruptcy if market conditions worsen. Merrill Lynch spokeswoman Carrie Gray declined to comment on this.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070823/bs_nm/countrywide_interview_dc;_ylt=Ahu_8rOK2LE29570JGkcJvKs0NUE

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.