Housing Market Tracker - Housing Stocks Review

Here's our summary of articles and data points on the housing market. It's part of Seeking Alpha's coverage of the real estate market and homebuilder stocks. Like all other topics and stock coverage from Seeking Alpha, you can have this sent to your Blackberry or desktop email by signing up for our no-spam free email subscription service.

Quote of the Day

"Our average sales price on net sales orders in that quarter decreased approximately 15% from a year ago to [$205,400]. However, our average sales price on gross sales only decreased 8% to $231,900, as more high priced homes cancelled during the quarter." (emphasis added- Ed.)- Don Tomnitz, President and CEO of homebuilder D.R. Horton (DHI). (D.R. Horton F4Q07 Earnings Call Transcript in Seeking Alpha, Nov. 20th)

Homebuilders, Housing Stocks and Housing-Related Stocks

• 'Virtual Amenities' Available To Retirees (Arizona Republic, Nov. 24th): "[Internet] help will be offered to residents of two northwest Del Webb communities... Sun City Festival in Buckeye and Corte Bella in Sun City West... [Parent company] Pulte Homes (PHM) has given residents information about the paid service... Tech experts offer help via telephone to computer users. It's the latest in marketing techniques for developers hoping to bring useful amenities to their new communities... Del Webb's newest communities... receive Del Webb Live, an intranet service that offers e-mail, local events calendars and a community social networking function."

• Pulte Homes CFO Cregg Exercises Options (Forbes, Nov. 23rd): "The executive VP and CFO of homebuilder Pulte Homes Inc. exercised options for 182,400 shares of common stock, according to a SEC filing Tuesday. In a Form 4 filed with the SEC, Roger Cregg reported he exercised options for the shares Monday for $5.45 to $11.66 apiece, and then sold 152,300 of them for $11.96 apiece. Insiders file Form 4s with the SEC to report transactions in their companies' shares. Open market purchases and sales must be reported within two business days of the transaction."

• Dominion Shares Drop Below $1 After Homebuilder Posts Another Loss (Columbus Business First, Nov. 23rd): "Dominion Homes Inc.'s (DHOM) red-ink-splashed third quarter has pushed its stock below an ignoble mark - its shares now trade for less than $1. The homebuilder this month reported a third-quarter loss of $15.3 million, almost triple its Q3'06 loss of $5.9M. Revenue tumbled more than 40% to $38.1M from $64.9M a year earlier, as the company's housing sales fell 25%. Since then, Dominion shareholders have witnessed its stock price continue what has been a nearly straight two-year slide. The stock had topped $20 as recently as summer 2005, but closed Nov. 20 at $0.68/share."

• As New Home Sales Stall, Deals Abound (Yahoo! Finance, Nov. 21st): "The premium for owning a new home... is vanishing and even reversing in favor of existing homes in parts of Florida, Las Vegas, California and other over-built areas throughout the nation... In some cases, builders... such as Ryland (RYL), Meritage Homes (MTH), D.R. Horton (DHI) have trimmed prices to such an extent in H2'07 that buyers in many markets are actually paying less per square foot on average for new homes than used homes. HousingIntelligence.com: The median price/sf for a new home nationally dropped 12% to $123.71 in the four months ending in August. Existing home prices during the same period rose 2% to $129.95/sf."

• Share Repurchases Losing Appeal in Cash Strapped Markets (Eli Hoffmann in Seeking Alpha, Nov. 21st): "Cash-strapped companies sometimes find themselves forced to sell on the cheap the same shares they recently retired at much higher prices... Standard & Poor's Nick Riccio: Share buybacks and leveraged buyouts have lead to downgrades of "about a dozen" investment-grade companies... Home Depot (HD) went from A-plus to BBB-plus after it said it would finance $12 billion of a $22.5B share repurchase through debt... Troubled mortgage-lender Freddie Mac (FRE)... may consider a share sale. Freddie repurchased $1B shares this year. Countrywide (CFC) spent $2.4B [this] year in share buybacks; recently it was forced to sell shares at depressed levels to raise money."

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