New Home Sales in West Drop 11.9%
New Home Sale
The Commerce Department reported today that new home sales dropped 11.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 309,000 units, the lowest level on records going back nearly a half century.
Here in the West we saw sales fall 11.9% from December but they were up 13.8% from a year ago.
Home Loan Write Downs
Wells Fargo inherited a $119.7 billion portfolio of option ARMs when it purchased Wachovia. The bank now is writing down an average of $46,000 per loan, and as much as $100,000 in some cases, and transferring these loans to interest-only loans, deferring balances to six to 10 years. According to the Wall Street journal, the nation’s fourth largest bank is betting that an increase in consumer income will cover the banks option arm portfolio.