Housing Overload
There have been multiple articles on the housing market over the past few days. They are presenting mixed signals on the direction of housing. Here is an article on Fannie Mae's quarterly loss. The article has good information on the state of delinquencies. Not surprising but not encouraging. Here is an interesting take-away from the article:

Fannie Mae, which buys mortgages and repackages them into bonds it guarantees, said in its earnings report that it doesn't see any relief coming. Serious delinquencies will continue to mount this year, the company said, as housing markets continue to deteriorate, particularly in states like Florida and California.

"We expect the housing market to continue to deteriorate and home prices to continue to decline in these states and on a national basis," Fannie said in its annual report. "Accordingly, we expect our single-family serious delinquency rate to continue to increase in 2008.

And here is what's happening to all the home buyers who were late to the game:

Fannie said delinquency rates were highest for borrowers with low credit scores or high loan balances relative to the value of their homes, with fast rises in delinquencies among loans with less than full documentation, adjustable rates, and interest-only or variable payment features, many of them made in 2006 and early 2007. Loans used to buy condominiums and second mortgages also saw delinquencies rise rapidly, and Florida was a particular trouble spot, with serious delinquencies there nearly quadrupling.

Here is another article on new home sales. Sales have not been this low since 1995. This is a dramatic headline but I'm not sure what it means in the whole scheme of the housing mess, unless you view 1995 as when the housing market turned up after falling in the early 1990s.