APP Article on Hov

BY DAVID P. WILLIS
BUSINESS WRITER

During its nearly 50-year history, Hovnanian Enterprises has seen ups and downs in the housing market.

You can count this as one of those down times for New Jersey's largest home builder.

The company has lost money for two consecutive quarters and last month said it anticipated a loss in its next quarter as well. Wall Street has pummeled Hovnanian shares, which have dropped more than 35 percent over the last year.

Full article...

Blame it on the Weather

[Existing-home sales plummeted 8.4 percent from February (6,680,000 units) to March (6,120,000 units) and 11.3 percent since March 2006 according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Tuesday. Erratic weather across the country and unrest in the mortgage industry are being blamed for the drop.

"For the last couple months we've been expecting a weather 'hit' on home sales finalized in March, but looking at overall activity in the first quarter we see that existing-home sales averaged 6.41 million -- a figure that is moderately higher than the sales pace during the second half of 2006," said David Lereah, NAR's chief economist. "We also may be seeing some losses as a result of the subprime fallout. However, this is masking improved fundamentals in the housing market, with lower mortgage interest rates and motivated sellers."]

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"I Saw the Bubble Bursting"

"This past Saturday, I attended a barbecue at my friends' house in Maryland. I was surprised to notice as I pulled up out front that the house next door looked vacant and forlorn. Instead of a for-sale sign, there were pages glued to the front window.

As it turned out, forlorn might have actually translated into "foreclosed," since my friends' neighbors had apparently moved out in the middle of the night. (I can't help wondering whether the site was shown on the new "foreclosure" section Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) has added to its real estate hub.)"

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NJ Legislator Tries To Make Matters Worse

There is probably not a faster way to reduce housing market liquidity than to tell banks they can not foreclose. Simply put, a bank will not make a loan if believes the state will impede its ability to collect their collateral should the home owner not pay principal and interest.


(ROSELLE) - Assembly Deputy Speaker Neil M. Cohen today called for a state-imposed moratorium on subprime mortgage loan foreclosures, pending an investigation into the burgeoning problems in the subprime lending market and its effects on New Jersey homeowners.

"The nation's subprime mortgage loan market is experiencing a total and catastrophic meltdown," said Cohen (D-Union), the chairman of the Assembly Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee. "A moratorium is needed to provided breathing room so regulators, investigators, and lawmakers can get a handle on what this meltdown means for New Jersey homeowners and what potential safeguards may be needed for consumers."

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Nice Deal For Carla Katz Corzine

HOBOKEN — State workers' union boss Carla Katz, whose romantic history with Gov. Jon Corzine has caused him political headaches and shadowed recent contract talks, enjoyed a beneficial deal when she purchased a condominium four months ago in the same riverfront building where the governor resides.

So rare were the terms of Katz's $1.1 million purchase that only one other buyer of condominium units in the Hudson Tea Building got a better price in all of 2006, in terms of the ratio of the purchase price to a unit's assessed value.

And that buyer was a limited liability corporation consisting of three men whose names are listed as executives in the company that owns the building and is selling its condominiums — Toll Brothers of Horsham, Pa., a suburb north of Philadelphia.

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And according to Redbankgreen a judge from Little Silver will be taking a look into the matter.

Rumson House Back on Market - 2 Years After Original Listing

An alert reader brings to our attention a house in Rumson that is back on the market. Way back in '05 we highlighted this house as an example of how delusional some home sellers had become about how much they thought their homes were worth. Two years after originally putting the house on the market, the owners are still looking for a buyer. (I think the home might have been rented out for awhile in the interim.)

"Hey our favorite Rumson house that we have been following is back on the MLS. Original list price in April 2005-$939,000. Current list price-$679,000."

Eastern Monmouth MLS at 4116

At this time last year there were 3509 homes on the Eastern Monmouth MLS.

Inventories hit a record 4772 in September of 2006.