Facing foreclosure? Fight is better than flight

Financially stressed homeowners have options instead of just moving out
By Jeff Brown

It’s the toxic fallout from the “subprime meltdown”: More and more Americans are losing their homes to foreclosure.

Sadly, many could escape this fate if they’d just talk to their lenders. Instead, they hunker down and hope against hope that something will happen before the mortgage company takes the home.

Nationally, the number of homes in foreclosure soared by 36 percent between July and August, and foreclosures have more than doubled in the past 12 months, according to RealtyTrac, a company that tracks foreclosure filings. Some experts think 2 million homeowners will lose their properties in the next couple of years.

The situation is especially bad in some markets that had the fastest home-price gains in recent years. Between July and August, foreclosure filings jumped by 48 percent in California and 77 percent in Florida. Nevada has the highest foreclosure rate in the country — one of every 165 households, compared to one in 510 households nationwide.

For some homeowners, foreclosure may seem the easiest option. If interest-rate increases drive monthly payments too high and the property cannot be sold for enough to pay off the loan, many just walk away and let the lender have the property.

That strategy’s a mistake. It’s almost always better to avoid foreclosure.

Foreclosure can ruin your credit rating, making it nearly impossible to borrow money in the future, and it might even make it harder to get a job or rent a home. In fact, a foreclosure can even cause your federal income tax to jump.

Fortunately, there is help, and I’ll make some suggestions in a minute. But first, why are we in this mess?

It’s the hangover from the housing bubble.

Low interest rates during much of the decade allowed buyers to borrow more, letting them bid home prices up. Lenders eager for business started offering “subprime” and “Alt-A” loans to people with poor credit or low incomes. Most of these loans carried adjustable rates that are now going higher, often adding hundreds of dollars a month to the homeowner’s monthly payment.

Tougher lending requirements and pre-payment penalties make it hard for troubled borrowers to refinance with cheaper fixed-rate loans. And many of these borrowers now find that their properties have lost value and cannot be sold for enough to pay off a mortgage taken out two or three years ago.

Result: The homeowner falls behind in payments, and after a few months the lender takes over the property.

What do you do if you’re in this fix?

First, look for any way to trim expenses so you can make your payments. Cut out entertainment, meals out, cell phone service, cable TV — anything that’s not an absolute necessity. Take shorter showers and eat more meatless meals, reduce gas costs by planning errands more efficiently. And as the weather gets colder, turn the thermostat down and wear a sweater. Many households can save hundreds of dollars a month with tighter budgeting.

Next, look for ways to increase income. Can you or someone else in the family get another full- or part-time job? Will local ordinances allow you to take in a boarder?

Then look for things to sell to raise money — the second car, jewelry, sports equipment, furniture and other things in storage. Have a garage sale or use eBay or craigslist.com.

Although people are usually told not to tap accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs for ordinary expenses, it may be worth it to save your home even if you have to pay tax and early withdrawal penalties.

Many of these steps are painful. But it may be short-term pain until conditions turn around — better than the long-term pain from losing a home and ruining your credit rating and job prospects.

If you still can’t make your payments after taking these steps, contact your mortgage lender. There should be a phone number in your loan documents, statements or coupon book.

Keep in mind that the lender does not want your home. Foreclosure is an expensive, difficult process for the lender, and because home prices are falling there’s no guarantee the lender will sell the property for enough to get back all that it lent you.

Many lenders are required by their insurers to work with troubled borrowers. For borrowers with temporary financial problems, lenders may suspend payments for a given period, or accept less than a full amount. Later, you would resume regular payments plus a certain amount every month to gradually make up the shortfall.

Or the lender might agree to permanently change your loan terms by reducing the interest rate, replacing an adjustable rate with a fixed one, adding missed payments to the loan balance or reducing monthly payments by giving you more years to pay the loan off. If your loan is insured by an agency such as the Federal Housing Administration, you might even be eligible for a one-time interest-free loan to cover late payments.

If it turns out you simply cannot keep the home, several options are better than an involuntary foreclosure. One is to ask the lender for time to sell the property to raise money to pay off the debt. The lender may agree to settle the debt for less than the full amount rather than incur the expense and hassle of foreclosing. Sometimes the lender will allow the homeowner to find a buyer to take over, or “assume”, the loan, even if your mortgage was considered non-assumable when it was approved.

A final option is “a deed in-lieu of foreclosure” in which you give the property to the lender, who then forgives the debt. This would not be quite as bad for your credit rating as an involuntary foreclosure.

Be aware, though, that when the debt erased by foreclosure is greater than the current market value of the property, the difference is considered income that may be subject to federal income tax. You may be able to avoid that tax if your liabilities exceed your assets. For information, go to the IRS Web site.


Also, get help from an expert. There are many state and federal programs offering advice or financial assistance. There is special help, for example, for people who live in disaster areas. And a federal law, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, can be used to reduce the mortgage rate paid by military personnel on active duty.

You can find help at little or no cost from a housing counselor approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that are listed at the agency's Web site, or by calling (800) 569-4287.

Stick with this list, as there are lots of crooked outfits looking to clean you out with false promises to shield you from foreclosure or boost your credit rating. An approved counselor can review your situation, explain your options, point you toward agencies and organizations that offer other help, and negotiate with your lender on your behalf.

© 2007 MSNBC Interactive
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21098586/page/2/

The New Money Pit: Housing Bust Gets Worse

It started with subprime mortgages. Now owners of McMansions are defaulting, and the effects of the housing bust are beginning to ripple through the economy.

By Daniel Gross
Newsweek

Sept. 10, 2007 issue - Walking through the gated community of Black Mountain Vista on a hill in Henderson, Nev., Thomas Blanchard offers a guided tour of real-estate woe. A row of stucco duplexes that recently sold for as much as $500,000 sit empty. "That's a repo," the real-estate agent says as he stands in front of 678 Solitude Point Avenue. Then he points to the adjacent houses, where yellow patches blot the spartan lawns and phone books lie on front porches, their covers bleached from weeks under the desert sun. "No. 680, repo; 684, repo. Those two at the end, repo."

Three years ago, this Las Vegas suburb was teeming with modern-day prospectors armed with low-interest mortgages, all hoping to strike it rich in real estate. Now, what started with the subprime-mortgage mess and subsequent credit crunch are turning communities like Black Mountain Vista into luxury ghost towns. Buyers who got in over their heads are being forced to abandon their homes, leaving behind empty McMansions on the California coast and see-through condominium towers on Miami Beach. Real estate is turning into a money pit, sapping the fortunes of home buyers, hedge-fund managers and house painters alike. The really bad news? This is only the beginning.

No sooner did the housing market peak last summer than pundits and home builders assured the public the bottom had been reached. But with each passing month, the shoes continue to drop. First, dozens of subprime lenders were forced to close their doors. Then in July the nation's largest mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial, reported that mortgages held by borrowers with better credit were starting to curdle. Nearly 180,000 homes fell into foreclosure in July, up 93 percent from a year ago. Last week President George W. Bush offered a series of proposals designed to ward off a flood of foreclosures. Sales of new single-family homes were off 22.3 percent in June from a year earlier, and sales of existing homes—a much bigger market—were off 9 percent in July. The National Association of Realtors reports there's enough housing inventory for sale to last 9.6 months, more than double the 2005 level. The Case-Shiller index, which tracks national housing prices, fell 3.2 percent between June 2006 and June 2007. While that's a relatively small drop, "this is the largest sustained decline in year-over-year prices since 1991," says Yale economist Robert Shiller.

The decline in housing construction and sales has had an immediate economic impact. From the perspective of job creation, real estate was the best sector in which to have a boom, providing jobs at every rung of the ladder: real-estate agents and mortgage brokers, architects and lawyers, investment bankers and decorators, movers and painters, contractors and landscapers. Between November 2001 and April 2005, housing and housing-related industries created 788,300 jobs, or 40 percent of the total created in the United States, according to Asha Bangalore, an economist at Northern Trust in Chicago. The demand for mortgage brokers in Las Vegas was so strong that "every stripper, waiter and bartender on the Strip had a broker's license," says Boyd Nyborg, a former mortgage broker who now tends bar at the Tao Las Vegas.


But since August 2006, employment in housing-related industries has declined 119,400, according to Bangalore. Last month brought a rash of job cuts: 1,600 at Accredited Home Lenders, a subprime-mortgage company based in San Diego; 1,900 at Capital One Financial's GreenPoint Mortgage unit; 6,000 at Tucson, Ariz.-based subprime lender First Magnus. Many real-estate professionals who work on commission have seen their pay plummet. Mike McNamara, a broker at Windermere Coeur d'Alene Realty in the Idaho resort town, says sales in the area have fallen by half since the summer of 2005. "My sales are down 30 percent from last year," he says. "There are about 1,500 agents in this market and approximately 300 are making a living." Harry Heyward, who has been appraising homes in Tampa, Fla., for almost 20 years, says he's doing about five appraisals per week—down from 10 to 15 at the height of the boom. "I keep thinking it's going to get better, and it never does."

The collateral damage is spreading. Because home sales and moves stimulate purchases of appliances, electronics and furniture, the giant chains that catered to house flippers and renovators have reported recessionlike results. In the second quarter, same-store sales were down 5.2 percent at Home Depot and 4.3 percent at Sears.

Americans who were living high by taking out home-equity loans during the boom have watched their equity drop, and are now faint of heart when it comes to big-ticket discretionary purchases. The National Marine Manufacturers Association said it expects pleasure-boat sales, down 6 percent in 2006, to fall 10 percent more in 2007, largely due to the housing woes. Boatarama in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., had to consolidate from four locations to one, and it now sells only used boats. Brunswick Corp., which makes Sea Ray boats, said in July that it was slashing production due to the housing situation "in Florida and California, which are two of the nation's largest boating markets."

The nation's biggest retailing sector—automobiles—is likewise feeling the effects. In July, auto sales were down 12 percent from the year before. When CNW Research asked consumers who were putting off plans to buy new cars why they were doing so, 17.6 percent cited housing issues like falling home equity or rising mortgage payments. That compares with just 2.3 percent in 2005. John Crane, general sales manager at Ron Smith Buick Pontiac GMC Jeep in Merced, Calif., a farming community of 80,000 that has experienced an influx of Bay Area refugees, has seen a tremendous slowdown in the past six to eight months. "People don't have the money to look at cars," he says. "They're having a hard time paying house payments. Now their second mortgages and 1 percent loans are coming up."


Which brings up another problem. Roughly $370 billion in adjustable-rate mortgages will reset this year, according to First American CoreLogic, and millions of Americans will have to pay significantly more per month just to stay in the same home. Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com, says that in the peak month of October 2007, some $50 billion worth of mortgages will reset at higher rates. Meanwhile, new mortgages are getting harder to come by, and not just for borrowers with subprime credit. Freaked-out lenders are ratcheting up requirements for minimum-credit scores and down payments. Kim Dicce, a Realtor in Tampa, where housing inventory is piling up, notes that lenders now seem to be requiring buyers in her area to put 15 to 20 percent down and have a credit score above 700. "Now we only have one third of the eligible buyers that we had before, and five times as many houses." Higher-income earners with good credit haven't been spared, as chastened lenders focus on making loans that they can quickly sell to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy mortgages only up to $417,000. Rates on 30-year fixed jumbo loans have risen in the past month from 6.625 percent to about 7.5 percent, says Michael Daversa, president of Atlantic National Mortgage, a mortgage broker in Westport, Conn. On a $500,000 mortgage, that's an extra $4,375 per year in interest—a 13 percent increase.

It's difficult to project where all this will lead. As was the case in the tech boom, seers and prognosticators have been proved wrong time and again. Some markets are holding up just fine, especially in so-called superstar cities like New York and San Francisco. But unlike stocks, which can fall 20 percent in a day, housing markets take longer to correct. Shiller notes that after the 1980s housing boom, housing prices fell in real terms (i.e., adjusted for inflation) by 20 percent from 1989 to 1996. "This time I think it could be worse, because it was a bigger boom," he says. "And look at the apparent confidence problem that we're seeing right now."

Confidence is indeed in short supply. Robert Toll, founder and CEO of Horsham, Pa.-based home builder Toll Brothers, was one of the avatars of the boom. In 2005, Toll, whose company specializes in building high-end homes in the suburbs, prophesied in a New York Times Magazine cover story of a day when middle managers might pay $4 million for a home in the distant New Jersey burbs of Philadelphia or New York. But on a conference call with investors last week, Toll glumly declined to call a bottom. "This past week was the worst week for traffic in our history," he said.

All of which means those houses outside Las Vegas—and those auto showrooms in Merced—could stay empty for a while. That's probably not what the developers in Henderson had in mind when they named the street Solitude Point Avenue.
With Eleazar David Melendez in Henderson, Alice Chen in Merced, Lynn Waddell in Tampa and Temma Ehrenfeld in New York

Bush outlines plans to help homeowners

MSNBC.com

Proposals aimed at helping those with risky mortgages keep their homes
The Associated Press
Updated: 9:58 a.m. MT Aug 31, 2007

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Friday outlined ways to help homeowners facing foreclosure — the administration’s first effort to deal with an expected wave of defaults fueled by the mortgage crisis.

The initiatives, which are not aimed at bailing out lenders or speculators, are designed to help homeowners with risky mortgages keep their houses. In remarks in the Rose Garden, Bush also discussed efforts to keep the problems from arising in the future.
“The government’s got a role to play, but it is limited,” Bush said. “A federal bailout of lenders would only encourage a recurrence of the problem.”

The president insisted that the U.S. economy was strong and could weather recent turbulence in the financial markets. He said the mortgage market, especially the subprime sector, has shown particular strain. One of the most troubling developments has been an increase in adjustable-rate mortgages, which start out with low interest rates, then reset to higher rates after a few years.

“This has led some homeowners to take out loans larger than they could afford based on overly optimistic assumptions about the future performance of the housing market,” Bush said. “Others may have been confused by the terms of their loan, or misled by irresponsible lenders. Whatever the reason they chose this kind of mortgage, some borrowers are now unable to make their monthly payments, or facing foreclosure.”

A key element of Bush’s plan would allow homeowners with good credit histories, but who cannot afford their mortgage payments, to refinance into mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration to keep from defaulting.

Earlier this month, Bush predicted that the ongoing decline in the housing market wouldn’t become precipitous, but would result in a “soft landing.”

He rejected any direct government aid to homeowners losing their houses to foreclosures, saying he only supported federal government help that would encourage refinancing and educate prospective home buyers about risky mortgage terms

“Anybody who loses their home is somebody with whom we must show enormous empathy,” the president said at an Aug. 9 news conference. “The word ‘bailout,’ I’m not exactly sure what you mean. If you mean direct grants to homeowners, the answer would be no, I don’t support that.”

On Friday, Bush:

Urged Congress to pass legislation that would give the Federal Housing Administration more flexibility to help mortgage holders with subprime mortgages.
Pledged to work with Congress to reform the tax code to help troubled borrowers rework their loans.

Called for rigorously enforcing predatory lending laws and strengthening lending practices.

Foreclosure and late payments have spiked, especially for so-called subprime borrowers with blemished credit histories or low incomes. Higher interest rates and weak home values have made it impossible for some to pay or to keep up with their monthly mortgage payments. Some overstretched homeowners can’t afford to refinance or even sell their homes.

Mortgage foreclosures and late payments are expected to worsen. Some 2 million adjustable rate mortgages are to reset to higher rates this year and next. Steep penalties for prepaying mortgages have added to some homeowners’ headaches.


The economy enjoyed a strong revival in the spring although growing troubles in housing and credit markets have darkened prospects considerably since then. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 4 percent in the second quarter — the strongest showing in more than a year.

But that growth could be the best showing for some time as the economy continues to be battered by the worst housing slump in 16 years and a widening credit crisis that has sent financial markets on a roller-coaster ride in recent weeks.


© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20524454/

Glut of homes hits 16-year high

Sales slip but supply of homes on the market jumps to 9.6 months, pushing prices down for 12th straight month.
By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
August 27 2007: 3:12 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Homeowners trying to sell last month faced the biggest glut of homes on the market in about 16 years, as declining sales and growing problems in the mortgage market helped push home prices down for the 12th straight month.

The National Association of Realtors said sales by homeowners slipped to an annual rate of 5.75 million last month, down 0.2 percent from the revised 5.76 million pace in June. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast the sales rate would fall to 5.7 million in the latest reading.

Not only did sales slip but the number of homes for sale jumped 5.1 percent, the group said, meaning there is now a 9.6-month supply of homes for sale, up from 9.1-months in the June reading. It was the biggest supply of homes by that measure since October 1991.

Foreclosure rescue scams
"Forget 'location, location, location.' The most important factor in today's real estate market is 'supply, supply, supply,'" said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst at with independent research firm Weiss Research.

"We are literally swimming in an ocean of homes for sale. In fact, at 4.59 million units, we have the most raw inventory for sale in history," he said. "Until we work through this extremely large inventory glut, we're not going to see any momentum in home prices."

Even the Realtors' own economist admitted that problems in the mortgage market will continue to take a toll on home sales.

"Home sales probably would be rising in the absence of the mortgage liquidity issues of the past two months," said Lawrence Yun, the trade group's senior economist.

A $200,000 'loss' -- and happy with it
"Some buyers with contracts have been scrambling when loan commitments did not materialize at the last moment, while other potential buyers are simply waiting for the mortgage market to stabilize."

August has seen problems in the mortgage market cut deeply into the availability of financing for many buyers, particularly those needing subprime mortgages due to credit rating issues or a jumbo mortgage of more than $417,000.

The existing home sale numbers track sales that closed in the month. Closings typically occur a month or two after buyers lock in financing.

"These are 'PC' figures -- pre-crunch," said Larson. "The mortgage credit crunch that began very late in July and picked up steam in August will likely put more downward pressure on home sales and prices this month and into the fall."

Add curb appeal to sell your home in down market
The report comes after Friday's government reading that showed new homes selling at a better-than-expected pace. But the reports showed more weakness in prices - which have become a major concern for the U.S. economy as a whole.

The median price of an existing home sold in the month fell 0.6 percent from a year earlier to $228,900. It marked the 12th straight month that prices have been down on that basis, after the June reading was revised lower as well. The July 2006 median price was a record high for that reading, which measures the point at which half the homes sold go for more and half go for less.

Experts have tied weak auto sales at least partly to concerns among consumers about the decline in equity in their homes. Some fear that weakness in home values and reduced access to home equity lines of credit could soon affect a broader range of retail sales.

In addition, the downturn in housing has also fed investor concern about mortgage-backed securities, which in turn has created a credit crunch in financial markets, and sent stocks into a tailspin, as a number of corporate deals have run into financing problems.

Where the growth is - and isn't
Not surprisingly, results at the nation's home builders have been among the hardest hit.

While luxury home builder Toll Brothers managed to report a narrow profit last week that topped forecasts of a loss, it still saw earnings fall 85 percent from year-earlier levels. And the six publicly traded builders who are larger than Toll have all reported losses recently.

Lennar, the nation's No. 1 builder, and No. 5 KB Home both reported a loss in the latest quarter. No. 2 home builder D.R. Horton and No. 3 Centex both reported losses far bigger than Wall Street had expected, while No. 6 Pulte Homes and Hovnanian Enterprises have reported losses for the last two quarters and analysts project losses for at least the next year.

Albuquerque Real Estate Market Conditions

Here is an interesting link to a web site called RealtyTrac.com http://realtytimes.com/rtmcrloc/New_Mexico~Albuquerque It gives you local real estate agents opinions of what the local real estate market in Albuquerque is doing.

Bank of America to invest $2B in Countrywide

Bank of America to invest $2B in Countrywide
Second largest U.S. bank plans to invest in preferred stock of the mortgage lender
August 22 2007: 6:44 PM EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Bank of America Corp. plans to invest $2 billion in Countrywide Financial Corp., the mortgage lender that recently faced a liquidity crunch, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The second-largest bank will buy preferred stock that yields 7.25 percent and can be converted into Countrywide common stock at $18 per share, the newspaper said, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation.

Bank of America spokesman Scott Silvestri and Countrywide spokesman Rick Simon did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Countrywide's market value was about $12.6 billion as of Wednesday's close. Its shares rose $3.73, or 17.1 percent, to $25.55 in after-hours electronic trading. Bank of America shares rose 69 cents to $52.34 after-hours.

Calabasas, California-based Countrywide, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, surprised investors last week when it tapped an entire $11.5 billion credit line because it was having difficulty selling short-term debt.

In January, before the mortgage and credit crisis surfaced, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America was the subject of speculation it might buy or enter a joint venture with Countrywide.

Countrywide foreclosures at multi-year high
Referring to the mortgage sector, Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said at the time, "we like the product but don't like the business," and that "we're not particularly interested in the wholesale and correspondent business."

Bank of America probably could not acquire Countrywide outright for a while. The bank's pending acquisition of LaSalle Bank Corp from ABN AMRO Holding NV would push it up against a federal cap on deposits and buying the operator of Countrywide Bank would probably push it over.

Countrywide (Charts, Fortune 500) shares were up 18.7 percent in after-hours trading in response to the report. Bank of America (Charts, Fortune 500) shares gained 1.6 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.

New home construction slowest in decade

July data show builders still struggling with ongoing housing woes

The Associated Press
Updated: 9:10 a.m. MT Aug 16, 2007

WASHINGTON - Construction of new homes fell to the lowest level in more than a decade in July as builders continued to struggle with the steepest housing slump since 1991.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that construction of new homes and apartments dropped 6.1 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.38 million units. That was down 20.9 percent from the pace of activity a year ago and represented the slowest pace since January 1997.

The housing industry, which had enjoyed a prolonged boom until 2006, has been struggling this year with a deepening slump as builders are slashing prices and throwing in various incentives in an effort to unload record levels of unsold homes. The problems have been worsened by rising home foreclosures, especially in the subprime market, a development which is dumping even more homes onto the glutted market.

In other economic news, the Labor Department reported that the number of newly laid off workers filing for unemployment benefits rose by 6,000 last week to 322,000. The increase was unexpected. Analysts had been looking for a decline of around 1,000.

The July drop in housing construction followed a 2.1 percent rise in June, which had been driven by a big increase in apartment building.

Applications for building permits, considered a good barometer of future activity, fell by 2.8 percent in July to an annual rate of 1.373 million units.

Housing construction fell in all parts of the country except the Midwest which posted a 2.6 percent increase in July. Construction starts were down 11 percent in the South, 3.7 percent in the West and 1.3 percent in the Northeast.

The current housing slump is the worst since a downturn that occurred during an economic recession in 1990-91.

Overall economic growth has slowed but so far there has been no recession as other sectors have offset the weakness in housing. However, private economists say that the threat of a recession would rise if consumer and business confidence were seriously eroded by the current troubles in financial markets.

Investor confidence has been rocked over the past two weeks by spreading troubles in credit markets amid concerns about how many big hedge funds and banks will report serious credit problems.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in an interview published Thursday that the sharp downturn in financial markets “will extract a penalty on the growth rate” but he said he believed the economy and the markets were strong enough to absorb the losses without pushing the country into a recession.

“Looking over periods of stress that I’ve seen, this is the strongest global economy we’ve had,” said Paulson, a 32-year veteran of Wall Street who headed investment giant Goldman Sachs before joining Bush’s Cabinet last year. Paulson’s comments came in an interview published in the Wall Street Journal.


The drop in housing construction followed news from the National Association of Realtors that sales of existing home fell in 41 states in the April-June quarter while one-third of metropolitan areas surveyed experienced price declines.

The National Association of Home Builders reported Wednesday that its barometer of builder confidence dipped by 2 points to 22 in early August, the lowest reading since January 1991, when the country was going through another severe housing downturn.

“Builders realize that issues related to mortgage credit cost and availability have become more acute, filtering some prospective buyers out of the market and prompting others to delay their decision to purchase a home,” said Brian Catalde, a home builder from El Segundo, Calif., and the president of the home builders group.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20296292/