Better Get a Roll of Tums...

....Something Wicked This Way Comes!

Wells Fargo & Co. CEO Richard Kovacevich said in December that ‘I am not a forecaster of the future; I’m a historian. And history says this will blow up. It always has. And there will be some blood on the street.’”

May 9th, 2007 - “Bank of America Corp. CEO Ken Lewis said a so-called credit bubble is about to break after six years of historically low interest rates and relaxed lending criteria.”

“‘We are close to a time when we’ll look back and say we did some stupid things,’ Lewis said. ‘We need a little more sanity in a period in which everyone feels invincible and thinks this is different.’”

Warren Buffett said: "... too many homes were bought by people carrying mortgages with little or no money down who then hoped to flip them quickly for a profit. 'The housing market is sick and it's going to stay sick for a couple of years' he opined."


“The National Association of Realtors said that sales this year will be lower than it earlier forecast. Carl Reichardt, a senior equity research analyst at Wachovia Securities, told Forbes.com that he wasn’t surprised by the lower projections.”

“‘We have seen deterioration in business conditions for the homebuilders that we survey in March and April,’ Reichardt said.”

“And it could still get worse, Reichardt said. ‘The homebuilding business has lost a portion of its customer base as financing conditions continue to compress,’ he said. ‘The housing industry has relatively modest job growth supporting it. If that leg is lost, housing could get worse.’”

“William Lyon Homes today reported pre-tax income for the three months ended March 31, 2007 of $5,804,000, down 87%, as compared to the comparable period a year ago. Consolidated operating revenue decreased 33% for the three months ended March 31, 2007.”

“Luxury home builder Toll Brothers Inc. said on Wednesday it expected to report lower quarterly revenue and warned that its profit would fall short of its own forecasts, as the protracted downturn in the U.S. home market worsened. ‘Twenty months into this housing downturn, we continue to face difficult conditions in most of our markets,’ CEO Robert Toll said in a statement.”

“‘We no longer expect to achieve the most recent quarterly and annual guidance we provided on Feb. 22,’ he said.”

Richard Dugas, Pulte Homes president and CEO, "told shareholders in Birmingham, ‘The worst may not be behind us.’ Dugas said he saw no signs yet of recovery after the worst housing slump since the early 1980s. ‘I think January and February appeared to be on the road to recovery, but after the subprime mortgage issue hit, consumer confidence took another hit, unfortunately, so I’m not sure there’s any light at the end of tunnel right now.’"